A Vocal Minority Of Idiots (& Journalists) Ruin Innovations On The Xbox One

The Xbox One reverses its course on DRM, great news, right? Wrong. While part of the developer story still remains to be seen at the BUILD conference, what we have now is a console that is not too much different than the Xbox 360 (Xbox 361?) or the PS4 for that matter. Earlier today a Microsoft spokesman confirmed that

Your entire games collection will no longer be available from the cloud.

Playing disc based games will requite will require the disc for playback.

Also, we will no longer offer family game sharing from the cloud.

The sharing of games will work as it does on Xbox 360, you’ll simply share the disc.

Downloaded titles cannot be shared or resold

The Xbox One originally saw itself as an authentically digital device, and now we take a step backwards where people are stuck with their discs. When is the last time you saw a PC Gamer complaining about not being able to re-sell their used game on Steam. Microsoft was originally also allowing you to share games with up to 10 friends. Imagine a family where a Dad and his two sons want to play Halo against each other. With the Xbox One, they would only need one copy of Halo, now with the changed rules, they need to buy three.

Gizmodo made a nice list of some possible scenarios that would have been possible with the Xbox One, but are not longer.

Every game you bought, physical or digital, would be tied to your account. This would eliminate current-gen problems like buying a disc, and then being unable to store it or download it from the cloud.

Because every single game, physical or digital, would be tied to an account, publishers could create a hub to sell and resell the games digitally. Let’s refer to these as “licenses” from here, even though it’s a loaded term.

Because reselling games would now work through a hub, publishers could make money on resold games.

Here is how this makes sense for YOU: New games could then be cheaper. Why? Publishers KNOW that they will not make money on resold games, so they charge more to you, the first buyer. You are paying for others’ rights to use your game in the future. If the old system had gone into place, you would likely have seen game prices drop. Or, at the very least, it could have staved off price increases.

You also would have started getting a better return on your “used” games—because a license does not have to be resold at a diminished rate.

How do you know that this would have been the case? Because that’s exactly what happens on Steam. But wait!, you shout. Steam is CHEAP cheap, and it has crazy sales. We love Steam! Micro$oft is nothing like that. Well, no, it isn’t now, but Steam was once $team, too. It was not always popular, and its licensing model was once heavily maligned. Given time, though, it’s now the only way almost every PC gamer wants to play games.

Sharing games would have worked either by activating your Live account on someone else’s Xbox One, or by including them in your 10-person share plan, which would not have been limited to “family.”. Details on that had been scarse, but even the strictest limitations (one other person playing any of the shared games from your account) would have been a HUGE improvement over the none that we have now. We don’t get that now.

The 24-hour check-in would have been necessary for the X1’s store, which it is not for Steam, because the physical product (game discs) would still be available. This check-in, literally bytes of data exchanged, would confirm that the games installed were not gaming the system in a convoluted install-here-and-then-go-offline-and-I’ll-go-home-and-check-in-and-go-offline-too-and-we’ll-both-use-the-game methods.

There is something ironic about people going online to complain about the 24-hr check on the Xbox One. We had people complaining about the theoretical possibility of not being able to play their game offline after 24 hours, from people who have not been offline for 24 seconds in the past year. I’m sitting here dumbfounded that Microsoft listened to 14 year olds on reddit and twitter. Microsoft listened to a vocal minority of morons and idiots, there is no other way to put it more nicely than that.

I also want to call out Tom Warren and other douchebag journalists who helped spread FUD about the Xbox and DRM and are now changing their narrative to say Microsoft should have stuck to their guns after realizing what they done. Here is a tweet from Mr. Warren “Ultimately, Microsoft’s plan was brave and innovative with the Xbox One. All they should have done is be more honest and explained it better.” Tom should be embarrassed, it was his website (The Verge) that was largely responsible for spreading untruths about the Xbox One. They were more interested in clicks/page views than anything else. Maybe as a “journalist” he should have written some articles to clear up the confusion. Tom likes to try to play it both ways here. Microsoft was crystal clear as to exactly what was going on in blog posts on Xbox News.

Microsoft will never win the PR war ever. The introduction of the start menu in Win8 solves nothing and did not help anybody like Windows 8 more. The removal of this DRM will do little to change people’s minds about the Xbox One. The tech press has and always will hate Microsoft. Even with this reversal nobody has changed their mind about buying an Xbox One. This complaining was all inside the tech circle jerk bubble. Microsoft needs to learn to stick to its guns and stop listening to minority crowd of morons and anti-Microsoft “journalists.”

Ultimately, I think Microsoft thought there was too much damage being done and they did not want the PS4 to gain a significant advantage over the Xbox One. Also as easily as these features were taken out they can be added back in. As they old saying goes If you throw a frog into a pot of boiling water, he’ll jump out. But if you place a frog into a pot of lukewarm water and slowly turn up the heat, it will boil to death. And so it is with inflation. In this case the DRM was too much for the typical moron gamer and Microsoft will have to slowly introduce these features over the next decade.

I’m saddened by Microsoft’s decision. The real winner here is Game Stop who will continue selling discs in 2013 (and the future, imagine that!). For the first time I was genuinely interested in buying an Xbox, and now I am much less so. To idiot gamers out there and moron journalists, I hope you got what you wanted. Thanks for ruining it for everybody.

About Author

Suril is a scientist, journalist and obsessive Microsoft observer. He holds an advanced degree in Biotechnology with minors in Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Molecular Biology.
Send him tips on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/surilamin

I hear ya.
But it had to be done.
It’s worse to lose support early on than to gain it later.

Ahmed A

Oh my god I was thinking the exact thing. Stupid people who can’t read destroy an amazing console..

techieg

Well, we should expect stupid people to complain anyway. What MS should have done is to make both options available and over time people will gravitate toward the new innovations, not just yanking out the new innovations totally and leave us with just what was there in XB360. The approach MS took makes no sense.

jonny_utah

I think thats what their going to do. Gradually shift. But when you’re console is on national TV and Jimmy Fallon is bashing it you have to reset!

Randy

It’s OK. Nobody actually watches Jimmy Fallon anyway.

Pookiewood

Gosh Jimmy Fallon is terrible.

nickcraze

Jimmy Fallon is a troll who is friends with many other Apple Trolls.

Dal Dudas

WTF are you bitching about now? People who bitched about DRM and online checks made this happen….Microsoft gets hate because they are the biggest company….

Agosto Nuñez

Nope, Microsoft gets hate because they are Microsoft, Apple is the biggest company in the world, and people praise them, the only people in the tech world more fanatical than Apple’s lovers are Microsoft’s Haters.

techieg

Here it is, please read the paragraph before the last where it says “…we will give consumer the choice of both physical and digital content.”:

Believe it or not, that’s what Sony is planning on doing, Nintendo is the only one NOT doing it, which is a shame, but the consumers shall punish them for that anyway.

Sony bought the American Cloud-company, Gaikai for this exact purpose, Sony is now laughing their arses off because of Microsoft’s major step-back, they’ll implement it, and when a not-Microsoft company does the same as Microsoft, they’ll receive praise and gets kissed by both media and internet-trolls while Microsoft shall get the bashing for ”not introducing it earlier”.

koenshaku

Actually stupid MS from trying to create such a console, it was too restrictive it was corporate suicide considering data quotas from many ISPs outside the U.S and the fact that not many wanted a steam console with 24 hour internet connectivity checks. I sure as wasn’t hell buying one its a matter of opinion and purpose of use and no one is stupid because of it. Preorders for xb1 to PS4 were 1 to 3 which was also quite telling it would have been silly for them not to reverse course for several reasons introducing an always online console right after the NSA prism declassification with a microphone and camera.
After this I was starting to look at MS as a whole as a company that is just out of touch starting with a half baked windows 8 and the abomination that is xbox music. I’m glad they changed course and showed that at least someone has some sense there.

bh4ks

You would have never bought one anyways regardless. I bet you you still wont buy one despite the reversal. Its people like you who spoil it for people like me willing to put my money where my mouth is.

Dal Dudas

I was buying it before restrictions were removed…..I didn’t feel restricted by DRM nor online checks and am not a tin-foil lunatic who thinks a game is spying on me….well said,sir

Philip Weigel

And it’s people like you who spoil gaming for people like me who are tired of DRM schemes being implemented by publishers left and right. The more you purchase their stuff, the more you say “hey, it’s okay, go right ahead, we don’t care that you’re raping us to the bank.”

Why do you think EA had to win the “Worst Company in America” TWICE before they started listening to criticism? Because people, like you, buy their POS products and then complain about it later. Why should EA care? They already got your money.

koenshaku

I’m a consumer my purchase decisions have to do with my interest. I bought the first xbox after owning a dreamcast it was graphically superior to the PS2 and it was the ultimate media center if you used XBMC with it as I did for years. Afterwards I purchased an xbox 360 because it came with such GPU innovations like the unified shader architecture I think it was 48 dynamic shaders or something like that when standard PC GPUs had 8 with the integrated 10mb of fast DRAM from hardware standpoint it was superior to the PS3 and I felt the controllers of xbox to be much better than the PSX dual shock.
The point is I have reasons for making my purchase decisions, while I have some favoritism I don’t allow it to blind to buy something technologically inferior without just cause. Its like deciding to buy a entry level full frame camera Nikon’s D600 has 39 focus points to Canons 6D which cost a little more and has one focus point, but can focus better in low light. I am going to read the reviews and make a decision based on my photographic needs. That said I don’t know if I will still buy an xbox one because I don’t know if I want a kinnect at the cost of graphical performance I will weigh out the exclusive titles and see just how superior the performance is of both systems graphics effect gameplay.

bronzegriff09

if xbox can remove drm with just an update then what else could they do? answer that question fanboy. i dont like sony that much and i dont even want to buy the new xbox bcuz if all the fucking hassle caused so shut your mouth bh4ks. i owned both an original xbox and a 360.

slickjoint

yeah, like you’re never connected to internet even once everyday… moron. stfu

koenshaku

Firstly internet connections go down. Secondly even if it did not why would I want to purchase a device that unnecessarily takes advantage of this? Even steam allows 30 days offline play and it is digital service that in not say stops me from going to a store and purchasing a physical copy of a game that I can do what I want with after purchasing it. Its as bad as someone telling you can’t have lemonade you can only have pink lemonade they add the coloring, because they got tired of looking at the natural color and you are the type of person to submit smile and say you have to drink anyway.

nohone

The web sites that just a few days ago were outraged with how Microsoft was destroying the gaming industry with “restrictive DRM”, are now lamenting how Microsoft had created the future of gaming but have now taken us back to the stone age because they listened to the very complaints that they used to generate clicks to their web sites.
Steve Jobs said that nobody wants to read books. Nobody wants to use a smaller screen in their tablet. That nobody wants a true SDK because web pages were good enough. And the blogosphere all nodded their heads in agreement and applauded. Apple released iBooks and are now in court over being a monopoly. They introduced the iPad Mini, and people cheer how it sells in the millions. And they created an ecosystem that the fanboys now talk about 750,000 apps, and the 200,000 on the Microsoft device is pathetic but deny that Windows has the most apps. But when it is about Microsoft, as I wrote in another article, they are criticized if they create an advanced system, and criticized if they remove it.

Brandon Casteel

Microsoft: hated when they introduce a console with unique features because of DRM. Hated when they drop the DRM due to customer/internetizen demands for being wishy washy. Oh well.

Pookiewood

I agree. Their name alone just strikes the hate in most people. I see it all day long where I work (a major name in the tech sector). It’s crazy!

Avatar Roku

In the 12 years I’ve been an Xbox gamer and supporter, this has been the worst day. Worse than the day Bungie, Bizarre, and Bioware decided to leave the Xbox family.

Microsoft just gave up all progress of their online digital future to in order to prop up an archaic and physical-media-dependent Gamestop-pawnshop past.

We are now living in a console industry that has not progressed it’s business model since the 1980’s. We’ve sacrificed all of our digital ownership rights to protect physical media rights.

arrow2010

No, it’s because the shitstorm over their DRM-policies have reached such epic proportions they needed to do this.

SteveyAyo

Valve didn’t when they faced the same exact backlash… Microsoft sacrificed the next gen so they wouldn’t have to actually explain their product properly

Jared

Not a smart comment. I don’t think you believe that anyways.

FUS3360

I totally agree.

Philip Weigel

You mean we PROTECTED our consumer rights so that companies couldn’t screw us over with their digital licensing.

Thing is, we wouldn’t OWN any digital stuff under the model, if you pay attention to Apple with the iOS store or the Kindle e-books store and you hear the stories of apps and books getting deleted off of people’s devices AFTER people paid for them because of some policy change, then you’d see why this DRM scheme getting defeated is a good thing.

I’m sorry that I want to OWN my stuff! If that’s offensive to you, well, as MS people have said…

“Deal with it.”

UncleFan

The entire premise of your article is wrong. It was, in fact, a vocal MAJORITY who were outraged at the used games and always-connected issues. I know that’s not what hardcore fanboys want to hear, but it’s the truth.

Baaa

How do you prove that it was indeed a *majority*?

NotMicrosoft

When a mainstream TV show like Late Night With Jimmy Fallon gets the PS4, announce that the PS4 will get the Used Games and No DRM, and gets an ovation, that’s when you realize that the majority is involved.

TroyGates

Or you know Sony PR could have pursued Jimmy Fallon and offered him an exclusive look at the PS4. I think a minority of console gamers watch Jimmy Fallon.

Philip Weigel

There’s also the standing ovation they got at E3, the SHEER amount of blogs that were going off on MS, hell, even blogs that deal with more issues on the law regarding patents, software and copyright were going off on Microsoft, and they’ve been busy covering all the details of the NSA, FBI and CIA sucking up all your data without warrants.

Everyone I’ve talked to has said “Not getting an X-1, I’m getting a PS4″ and most of them have either both systems or just the 360.

That should tell you something right there.

BTW, these were people who worked at gas stations, movie rental stores, some friends of mine who work in other service industries, etc.

Misak Ghazaryan

and now they’re outraged because Microsoft listened.
give a caveman a gun so he can use it to hunt more effectively and he’ll complain that its he doesn’t like it and just wants his club back. take the gun away and give him his club back and he’ll complain that he wants the gun back.
and no it wasn’t a majority, the tech community are far from being a majority, but being as we’re the ones in the know about these things the rest look to us for their info and when they see people bashing xbox they assume its bad without knowing the whole story, especially when one of the ones bashing is Sony with short to the point but inaccurate jabs about restrictions on trading games etc

daryl welch

I’m not a fanboy . Me and other fathers loved the idea of sharing games. People need to open their mind to change. Drm is not bad in a companys hand that knows how to use it for your advantage. Not greedy ass ea

FUS3360

I agree.. We who started gaming since the Atari have grown up. Now we have children and just like us, the Xbox Has matured since it first released in 2002. The Xbox One is the perfect console for gamers and for parents like us.

Philip Weigel

I’m sure that not being able to rent games is perfect for people with kids.

FUS3360

I haven’t rented a game in the last 8 years.. I buy them as discs or digitally.

sandisto

I see Ms’s u-turn as more of an acknowledgement that their core market is dinosaur gamers who are running scared about the inevitable decline of console gaming. This will shut them up so they can wither and die quietly while Ms switches focus to entertainment.

arrow2010

However the media side of this is interesting IF the Kinect is really great.

Lars Passic

“Imagine a family where a Dad and his two sons want to play Halo against each other. With the Xbox One, they would only need one copy of Halo, now with the changed rules, they need to buy three.”

You’re dreaming. The family library only worked while you weren’t using it, they were very clear about that.

“Your entire games collection will no longer be available from the cloud.”

I’m pretty sure that when YOU choose to buy YOUR games digitally, all of YOUR digitally purchased games will be available from the cloud. Now, at least people have the choice. Disc vs. Digital

Misak Ghazaryan

actually it was one other person who could play, the owner and someone in the family pack.
the previous policy would link all ur games to xbox live so ur games were available to u anywhere with internet, now only ur digital games are.
the previous policy allowed u to share all ur games digitally with anyone in ur family pack, now u can only lend discs to people

leoniDAM

and that’s what you’d have done before!
But beyond this there were many other possibilities of sharing of games that now would seem to be no more

FUS3360

This is exactly the pisition I’m in.. My two boys and i play together and I’ve always purchased multiple copies of a game. Split screen is nice but not all games suport it. This is where DRM and cloud would be beneficial.

Lars Passic

Except that there was never a situation that allowed you to only buy one game. The OP was wrong… I agree if we could split games ten ways, that this change would be a loss. The more realistic scenario would be that you buy Elder Scrolls 6 or whatever, and when you were offline, one of your boys could play your cloud copy. But the other boy could not, and they most certainly would not be able to play together. Or with you. They would need to buy their own licenses.

FUS3360

My boys have different taste for theor games so even being able to play two different games would be great.

Kabwall

Is it not a far better solution than what we have now?

Jakub M

Happily it’s not that bad. You’ll have a choice of using online OR offline system setup. In this way they are not cancelling the first idea, just add the offline option to rival PS4 and get rid of dumb journalists.

Citing Marc Whitten (Chief Product Officer at MS):
“We think most people will be using the console in the connected state, they’ll be taking advantage of all that functionality. Their games will all be up to date, they’ll be switching between content, they’ll be doing smart matches all the time, they’ll be streaming content — then they’ll have the choice, if they’re going on vacation or if they’re in a place with low connectivity, to use the console in a different way. Candidly, I think we’re adding functionality. I think we’re adding choice into the console. I don’t really see it as losing things.”

leoniDAM

The cancelled the first idea!

Their plan was to make everything available via cloud, but now they can’t, now the disc is required before no, before the games were linked to your Xbox Live account, now no longer.

The scenery is definitely changed

Jakub M

If you buy disc, you use disc. If you buy “online” you use it “online”. That is what I understood from the interview (and not from some opinion of some journalist).

kevgallacher

Yes but the while selling and sharing downloaded games is gone.

Brandon Casteel

Still losing out on the shared games library and the ability to resell or trade digital content.

Gareth Jordan

Take away peoples freedoms microsoft and they are not going to play with your console. Its primarily the principle, adding lots of complicated restrictions is primarily going to alienate people. If they wanted to implement such huge restrictive changes it is obviously apparent that this generation of consoles is too soon. How does a company of this size miss the mark so much in public opinion. As I assure you being an xbox owner and 360 owner (many times over) due to microsoft confusing and confronting agenda, Sony’s product seems infinitely simpler. All consumers want from next gen is better games with better graphics, scope, connectivity and fun. People are not going to pay more and expect more restrictions, is unrestrictions that people would prefer.

I can imagine a scenario of spending a fortune on this console and getting it all set up for something to go wrong which renders it as an unattractive paper weight. Like about 15 years ago when you have a crappy computer and you buy a game and your praying for it to work, installing it, getting all worked up and then an error message is displayed. The psychology that will afflict me when the Xbox is launched is, what restrictions does it have, what can’t I do, what can the Ps4 do, not the simple way it should have been- when does the xboxone come out what games does it have when can I buy it? Which seems to me irreversible damage to a console that hasn’t even been launched!

Misak Ghazaryan

so u don’t have a problem when it involves computer programs like office or windows, u don’t have a problem when its steam games or iTunes or Netflix, no one ever mentions WOW as an example for online gameplay but when the new Xbox comes out OH NO WE WONT STAND FOR SOMETHING DIFFERENT, EVEN IF ITS BETTER!!
what freedom are u losing? freedom to play games? nah still have that.
freedom to trade/sell/ lend games? nope still have that.
freedom to buy games? no still have that.
what are u losing? an arbitrary concept of ownership that’s as relevant as ur ownership of anything else digital. pfft.
what are u gaining? the ability to trade, sell and lend digital games
whats the trade off? that ur xbox be connected to the internet at some point during every 24 hr day so it can establish a connection to check u still own all ur games, a dialup connection would work because its only a couple of bytes of data.
I can also imagine a scenario where sony releases an update to the ps3 and it gets bricked, oh wait that actually happened in the last update. last I check reality trumps hypothetical scenarios

arcana112

In what alternate reality INSERTING A FRIGGIN DISC IS LESS COMPLICATED THAN SAYING “XBOX ON” AND THEN PLAY ANY GAME IN MY LIBRARY?

counterblow

the part where xbox checks online, can’t make a connection and invalidates the hundreds of dollars you spent on your lazy man’s game collection.

TroyGates

Seems it your fault your Internet doesn’t work, not Microsofts. Do you bitch at Netflix that you can’t watch movies when your Internet is down?

Philip Weigel

Actually, that’s the problem with the X-1 the way it was before.

Even if my net has 100% uptime, what about MS’s servers? Are they up 100% of the time? What about in 10 years? Will the servers still be up in 10+ years so we could have played the games? Are they protected from power outages? Are they protected against hackers 100% that can never get in? Do they need to be worked on that will take over 30+ hours, thus making it so people can’t play again?

The fact that you and others can’t see that is a real problem. You can still play your games from the Atari 2600 days, can you play online through your original xbox right now?

TroyGates

All the same things can be said about WoW. But it still has 10 million players. Its a new era in gaming, get on board or get left behind, oh wait we can’t cause all of you whiners are preventing us from moving on. Thanks.

Philip Weigel

Actually, it’s less than 10 million now. :p

And I don’t play MMOs. Go look at what happened to City of Heroes. 8 years online, had lots of people playing it, then they shut the servers down and all the work people put in for years is gone.

Do you REALLY want that? If that’s the future you want, you can have it. I’d rather have a future where I *OWN* my property and what I buy, not a future where a corporation can own my stuff. It’s bad enough with copyright, patent and trademark law, do we need to give up more of our rights and freedoms for the sake of the “future”?

TroyGates

Yes its what we want. Movies and music have moved to subscription based non-ownership systems. Its now time for games to do the same. With it prices will drop. Just look at Steam, it is the first iteration. Microsoft was trying to take it to the next level. This type of system will have much more flexibility than this 30+ year old system.

Philip Weigel

You’re an idiot if you think games would drop in price.

New games on Steam are still 50+ bucks. The RIAA HATED iTunes until they struck a deal with Apple that still gives Apple more profit than the RIAA is getting.

When CDs were going for 17.99 and Cassettes for 14.99, the RIAA swore, up and down, that as soon as they didn’t have to make cassettes anymore, the price of CDs would drop dramatically.

So, we bought into that. What happened? The price of CDs JUMPED to 21.99 and then later to 24.99.

There was no competition for CDs anymore, since Cassettes were gone, the RIAA had gotten rid of music rental stores by making it illegal to rent music (you used to be able to, was before my time even) and most music-only stores went out of business across the country.

With that bit of history in mind… Do you REALLY think that publishers would have lowered the price of new games?

I guarantee you that they wouldn’t have. In fact, if anything, no used games market, the price of new games would have gone up because there’s no alternative for people, and thus less people would buy, so the price would have to go up to make up for the loss of profits.

THAT is what the future you’re advocating will be like.

TroyGates

There are to many examples that say otherwise. Songs are now sub-$1 almost everywhere online or you pay a subscription to get unlimited downloads. Adobe moved there extremely expensive software to subscription for a very low cost in comparison. iOS/Android/Windows8 app stores have much lower prices (or even free via ads) for software than before online app stores. Steam games drop prices very quickly after the initial buy period for games. Movie rental stores out of business because of unlimited video streaming online.

Its all happened, just look around. The biggest indicator to you should be the cost of mobile gaming. Games are very inexpensive.

Philip Weigel

Songs are also solo songs. As in, one song on the track. CDs had 14-17 songs per CD. So, if you buy 14 songs off of iTunes, you’d spend about 14 bucks, right? Well, CDs were promised to be dropped to 8 dollars (back in the 1980s no less!) as soon as they were the only thing on the market.

You do realize that Windows 8 was so bad that they had to redesign it, right? Not a good comparison.

Look, I don’t mind the thought of digital gaming, being able to DL it straight to my console and play it is awesome, and I won’t deny that.

What I hate however, is the always online requirements. If MS didn’t have those requirements, there would have been a LOT less negative backlash to what they got.

Hell, Steam has gone on record as saying that if they were going to close down, they’d release a patch so you could keep your games forever.

What guarantee do we have that MS would do that with the X-1 the way things were?

In fact, we know they wouldn’t do that because they’re not allowing any XBL games that you may have purchased to move over to the X-1.

You are the one that entered into the agreement with your ISP not Microsoft. So if your connection isn’t functioning, thats between you and your ISP, not Microsoft. Do you hold your TV manufacturer responsible if your cable TV connection goes out?

counterblow

can you give some more inapplicable analogies, I haven’t read enough yet.

counterblow

the part where xbox checks online, can’t make a connection and invalidates the hundreds of dollars you spent on your lazy man’s game collection.

You are flat out wrong

Only an Xdrone would want to talk to their cancer console.

scotthumble

Freedom and digital rights usage for copyrighted material are two very different things.

Jimmy Pop

Awful article, and I think you mean “thanks for RUINING it for everybody.”, dip-shiitake.

Alex Kidd

This lost all credibility the moment you decried the notion of “disc-based games require the disc!!!1″ Er, yeah, that’s why they’re disc-based, my friend. Had Microsoft thought about it a little bit more then they could have simply removed the disc tray, and disc-based games altogether, and provided the world’s first digital only console, rather than “preparing us for a digital future” like a virgin buying some kind of practise lay from an expensive prostitute.

Who would have complained as much if Microsoft said “there’s no discs, we’re going to act like Steam now”? A lot less people than the “minority” (that being all the masses of people who cheered Sony at E3 and subsequently helped push PS4 pre orders higher than those of X1) anyway.

Don’t worry though, Microsoft can apparently take back all their design choices with a day-one patch, so their evil consumer-hating ways can easily be reinstated with another one once we’ve all been stupid enough to believe they care about their fans and bought an Xbox One.

Misak Ghazaryan

are u kidding, there would still be a shit storm, in fact Microsoft stated that they thought of doing just that but decided against it because it may have been pushing too far too fast, besides the policies would still remain the same, aside from installing all disc games to the HDD of course.
the 24 hr internet check is for digital game trading lending etc something steam doesn’t do (yet) so that would have stayed either way

arcana112

“all the masses of people who cheered Sony at E3 and subsequently helped push PS4 pre orders higher than those of X1″.
*Ahem*, XBOX One currently outsells PS4 at pre-orders at Amazon….
Moronic thinking like yours will keep the next-gen consoles at the “disc-based” stone age gaming….

Alex Kidd

Amazon isn’t the only outlet in the world, sir. I was going by several other sources, such as Shopto.net which has PS4 as higher. If Microsoft were so secure in these supposed higher pre-orders then why have they done a 180, genius? Pretty sure my argument, as most rational people with an education can see, was AGAINST keeping consoles as disc-based, as I’d rather MS decided to push digital formats now rather than sticking with discs but making them useless. Moronic fanboys like YOU are the kind of pathetic sheep who will buy anything no matter how much it tries to fuck them in the arse, I, however, value my consumer rights and don’t just need to “pWn mre noobz at Halo”. Go re-evaluate your position and come back when you have anything worth my time. Cretin.

Alex Kidd

Amazon isn’t the only outlet in the world, sir. I was going by several other sources, such as Shopto.net which has PS4 as higher. If Microsoft were so secure in these supposed higher pre-orders then why have they done a 180, genius? Pretty sure my argument, as most rational people with an education can see, was AGAINST keeping consoles as disc-based, as I’d rather MS decided to push digital formats now rather than sticking with discs but making them useless. Moronic fanboys like YOU are the kind of pathetic sheep who will buy anything no matter how much it tries to fuck them in the arse, I, however, value my consumer rights and don’t just need to “pWn mre noobz at Halo”. Go re-evaluate your position and come back when you have anything worth my time. Cretin.

Philip Weigel

Exactly. My biggest problem with the X-1 wasn’t, shockingly enough, used games. It was the always online check ins. If they didn’t have that, I wouldn’t have as much problems with the X-1. Sure, the games would be stored on the console, but at least I could play them for as long as the system lasted…

If it has to phone home every 24 hours, what then? Will I still be able to play the games in 10+ years?

I still pull out PS1, PS2 and gamecube games and play them at times.

counterblow

it does -NOW- it didn’t yesterday or the day before. It is clear that this policy was holding them back,

J P

It has for two days+ now, had nothing to do with the change of policy. However, there are several PS4’s combo on top 100. So its still likely PS4 is continuing to outsell XboxOne.

F-U

No it doesn’t, not by a long shot, the PS4 is already backordered because they have too much demand for it, and Sony is 10x the manufacturer than MS is, nope the X1 is way behind because launch day PS4’s are sold out.

NGM123

Or they could have bought out 2 consoles, one with disc tray, and another stripped down trayless digital only version that is a cheaper console with cheaper digital only games with all the so called DRM perks. If the DRM version really is better they would quickly drive the desired change without disenfranchising their entire customer base.

Here’s a quick scenario for the article writer. With WP7 we were able to access our Xbox video purchases. Come WP8 that capability was removed without Microsoft even blinking or explaining why. Poof, just gone. Who’s to say something similar won’t happen with digital games when they introduce the Xbox 2? This is why having a choice of using discs is good and that choice should always be available.

donzebe

Microsoft did it to themselves, poor PR. Microsoft should know by now that there are millions of wolfs by the gate ready to tear it (MS) apart. Refine the PR division and get the right people out to deliver the message to consumers. What would have been a great innovation by Apple is a great mistake by Microsoft.

arcana112

And kill the guy that leaked the “always on” requirement, allowing the media to spin it presenting ONLY the so called “negatives” around it and none of the positives…

You are flat out wrong

He should be given a medal. Fuck always-on.

RicardoDawkins

+360 Their PR department must be sacked. Starting with that Mattick guy.

stone

do you realise how hard it is to sack the President of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. He isn’t PR. just like sir alan sugar isnt the accountant of his buisness.

surur

fuck this…………..i stopped after 5 lines………

the “author” of this “article” is obv sucking steve off

FUCKING PATHETIC………………………….

360 bye bye,,,,,,,,,,,,ps4 here i come……….*even if i miss sky)

Mikado_Wu

So how about you makes a single point, this article is bad, instead of running your mouth.
Personally I agree with him, and am saddened by the change.

Andrew Allston

Lol the people commenting on this are just proving the point. The “there’s an app for that” idiots have hijacked tech in the last few years. I really hope MS finally realizes that most people that bash them just don’t get it or have no intention of ever using the product anyway and want to spread FUD so the companies that they are fans of “win”. Tech, I believe, is even more polarizing then politics in this county and that is very hard to do. More people get involved in speaking up when it comes to tech but they know as much about tech as they know about national security. The majority of people that consider themselves a “techie” believe that because they can jailbreak an iPhone. Its sad.

Mikhail Kutyin

No, I think it’s international

FUS3360

Exactly.. People are delusional..

error0x0000034

what the hell?!
Here are the features that these idiots have ruined:

– be a PATRIOT, whether in Call of Duty or the NSA
– PRISM reinvented with Kinect (exclusively for 21 countries, probably the main interest of the NSA)
– Playing games without a CD: OMG I cannot stand up and go to my console to replace the disc! But I like paying more for Kinect and I will use it.
– Game-Sharing: Buying a disc-game and lending it to a friend (wasn’t possible before)

I think I’ll buy the console now, just because of the fact that these idiots have ruined it.

Zicoz

- It’s not about being a fanboy, it’s about moving to the future, a more convenient future.
– You can turn it off, and it’s not doing anything your phones or PCs aren’t already doing.
– We could have gotten rid of the scratched CD problem for ever, and you wouldn’t have to lend your disk to your friend, simply add him to your list of 10 people and he can play all the games in your library when he wants as long as you don’t play it at the same time.
– Lending out disks wasn’t possible, but instead he could access your entire library when he wanted without having to borrow the disk, and if you’re visiting a friend and you want to play one of your games, you could play it without running home to get it.

Jared

How is not being able to play a game you bought because you have no internet the future?

Zicoz

Having internet isn’t even the future, it’s the present.

Jorge Manuel Xavier

Thanks for this article. I’m 100% with you!

daryl welch

I love this article. Its exactly what I was thinking, but put in better word. I am really getting tired of the verge and all the back handed complements they give Microsoft. Also their favorite saying when it come to a windows phone “put android on it” . They don’t write about all technology that people use. They write about what they like and think you should like , and dog everything else.

FUS3360

The Verge is a freaking Joke… I don’t even bother with that site anymore..

Microsoft has a serious communication problem with consumers. We’ve seen this with the Windows Phone, Windows 8, Surface RT and now this. They need to find ways of simply and quickly explaining their product advantages more adequately to more consumers—before rivals spread misinformation and incite hysteria against them . . .

jaylyric

I agree that MS may can use some PR help. However is totally agree that there are many journalist that eff up things for MS by putting out B.S. and the believe many do so intentionally.. I won’t go in to explaining how,but if you read many articles it would be obvious. I agree with the author there..

oldjovian

You’re correct. But the solution is for Microsoft to get better information out sooner. Haters aren’t going to quit hating . . .

koenshaku

They seriously do they should have had a little video tutorial on what and why features changed on their console. Like most of their products though they don’t market or present them well and I guess that is because they never really had to.

slickjoint

i agree, their PR system is broken atm. They can’t communicate to consumers, they don’t really know who they target is really, and their speech is too formatted (say ‘this’ each time like ‘this’, begin with ‘this’ etcetc)

they shot themselves in the foot.

Brandon Casteel

Thank you for this article. This is EXACTLY how I feel. Was always, and still am planning to purchase an Xbox One, but I am now mourning features such as shared games library that I’ll never be able to take advantage of.

Why so nasty

It’s funny how people think of these situations so selfishly. I would have been effected by a 24 hour check in system because I travel. I have friends who farm that would be effected. All Microsoft had to do is allow the console to work no what where you were in the world or your Internet status if the disc was in the console. Moving forward should not make people have to have a Internet connection. I’ve trying for years to get a friend to get home Internet, he doesn’t want to pay for it. If cloud based gaming is cheaper I’d think prices of digital games could already be reflecting it with lower prices. It’s not like digital games are new. Even if it was only a $10 discount people would opt for the savings. Instead you talk of future savings, yeah okay….. I don’t want a future where I can have my disc in the trey and still be unable to play my game. That being said, why all the name calling? You don’t know everyone else’s situations or have their desires. All you have is your opinion just like everyone else.

Mars

your mobile will probably have internet 24/7 and a simple authentication is just a few kilo bytes at most so it wont hurt your data plan either.

Jared

Not all mobile offers wireless sharing, and most people do not have smart phones

Adelphi

Most people do not have a smart phone????

Philip Weigel

Very few, in fact, have a smart phone, even in this day and age. Most just use a basic cell phone because that’s all they need.

Unless you live in an urban area, chances are, you don’t have a smart phone, you prolly don’t need anything more than a basic cell phone.

textomatic

You write like you live on a farm…. that was harsh…. but true…. or you’re 12.

YouAreAMoron

Especially harsh, considering your misuse of the word “where” FIVE times in your previous comment above.

textomatic

Touche!

Gtarcraz

I believe that the main problem with the Xbox1 is the fact that i would need to login every 24 hours to do the authentication process.

I, personally do not want to be burdened by this requirement as i am not an active gamer. I turn on my console only during the weekends to kill some time. Maybe MS could have increase the time interval in which users are obligated to do the authentication.

Though most people nowadays have the capability to connect to the grid, we cant assume that this is always the case. What if any unforeseen scenarios occur? Will my Xbox1 turn into a piece of rock if i fail to login the net within the tight 24-hours time gap? I think it’s this constant psychological fear/burden that’s making people think twice b4 buying an Xbox1. Will my $399 investment suddenly turn to a rock overnight?

MS should have addressed this problem straighton and not ignorantly assume that everyone thinks the same as them. Most people are resistant to changes and would prefer to stay within their comfort zone (technology that they can understand and control – just like how some of our grandparents are fearful of the internet in the past). I believe the changes should be more gradual and more time should be spent to explain the workings of the system.

Personally i will not buy an Xbox1 (No offence), as this machine does not suit my personal lifestyle.

I will end my comments with a quote:
“If we tried to go on the offensive when the masses are not yet awakened, that would be adventurism. If we insisted on leading the masses to do anything against their will, we would certainly fail. If we did not advance when the masses demand advance, that would be incorrect and going against the majority’s will.”

slickjoint

“I believe that the main problem with the Xbox1 is the fact that i would
need to login every 24 hours to do the authentication process.” you lost all credibility as soon as you wrote this. Makes you an ignorant that can’t read. I’m sorry bro, EpicFail

wormywyrm

You are wrong about having to log in every 24 hours, you just have to log in to play.

Tó

” Microsoft was originally also allowing you to share games with up to 10 friends. Imagine a family where a Dad and his two sons want to play Halo against each other. With the Xbox One, they would only need one copy of Halo, now with the changed rules, they need to buy three.”

Wrong. Up to 10, two(including the owner) at a time. They will need to buy three instead of two, not one.
While the concept was good, it wasn’t as permissive as many thought. It was an afterthought to address the initial complaints, anyway.

hhvdblom

Great conconclusion

Michael Gustav Schneider

thanks for this post! i was so happy with the old solution…

jvs

I can see monkeys, and they are everywhere. Some wants the Start button on Windows 8, some wants the Xbox One to be the same as Xbox 360…

counterblow

Well, lets just get this out there since you are calling people idiots, you are a fucking fool.

You contradict yourself so many times I don’t know where to start but I’ll try:

“New games could then be cheaper” and “getting a better return on your “used” games” are mutually exclusive terms. You REALLY think that with a DRM scheme in place publishers would institute pro-consumer policies? Are you insane? DRM would allow them to NEVER lower the price on new games and NEVER offer them for resale/trade.

Then you go on to say ” publishers could make money on resold games” HOW the fuck could that be possible if I’m supposed to get a better return for my games? I bought it and NOW I have to give ANOTHER cut to publishers? You don’t even cover who sets the price in this scheme. Currently I do. In a DRM scheme the publisher would and if all they would let me sell it for is .99 well tough shit I’m out of luck. Or more than likely they would hold the price at same as new, so it would offer no incentive for someone to buy from me when they can just get it new with less hassle.

Your blathering is so full of holes that is just the tip of the iceberg. Just shut the fuck up and be happy some “vocal minority” has preserved your rights as a consumer. People so willing to give up their rights so quickly deserve none.

Kelv

Have you actually look into how Steam work? A perfect example of how things will run.

SteveyAyo

Well, how things COULD HAVE run before yesterday

counterblow

people keep referring to steam. Steam gives you ZERO ability to sell used games. Let’s stop comparing apples to oranges.

clay113

Steam is changing that if you have been reading the news.

counterblow

they haven’t changed it yet and if you’ve been reading the “news” chances are it was April Fools day articles.

Kelv

Instead of having a good platform to build upon it, you complete trash it under the fake victory of preserving your rights.
Microsoft is the middle man. New policy or old policy they still make money. Publishers on the other hand will try to profit/recoup as much as they can, if their margin of profit gets eaten up by Gamestop, they will push up the up front charges for the new game buyers. I bet not too soon the game price will be closing in to the 100.

counterblow

Well, lets just get this out there since you are calling people idiots, you are a fucking fool.

You contradict yourself so many times I don’t know where to start but I’ll try:

“New games could then be cheaper” and “getting a better return on your “used” games” are mutually exclusive terms. You REALLY think that with a DRM scheme in place publishers would institute pro-consumer policies? Are you insane? DRM would allow them to NEVER lower the price on new games and NEVER offer them for resale/trade.

Then you go on to say ” publishers could make money on resold games” HOW the fuck could that be possible if I’m supposed to get a better return for my games? I bought it and NOW I have to give ANOTHER cut to publishers? You don’t even cover who sets the price in this scheme. Currently I do. In a DRM scheme the publisher would and if all they would let me sell it for is .99 well tough shit I’m out of luck. Or more than likely they would hold the price at same as new, so it would offer no incentive for someone to buy from me when they can just get it new with less hassle.

Your blathering is so full of holes that is just the tip of the iceberg. Just shut the fuck up and be happy some “vocal minority” has preserved your rights as a consumer. People so willing to give up their rights so quickly deserve none.

F-U

Wow, the Xbone is a terrible console with DRM, and a terrible console without it, M$ can’t find a middle ground like Sony is doing expertly, and stop calling out writers who are 10x better than you, no one cares for your damn site.

Mik3t

This post is endorsed by the SDF

jcfan1979

A-men. All they needed to do was make an option for people to be able to play for up to 72 hours or something offline because that’s the only thing that I think upset people was the thought of not being able to play when the Internet went down or something. I’m disappointed MS caved to the cave dwellers running DOS in their grandmothers cellars using morse code to somehow beep their way to the Internet and ruin it for everyone. That being said MS needs to hire someone that can articulate their positions better. Mattrick is a fool to say things like…….just buy the 360. Idiot PR management is also to blame.

RicardoDawkins

yes..that guy Mattick is an embarrassment of ginormous dimensions.

Philip Weigel

I have reliable internet that has damn good connection and the original ideas for the X-1 were horrid in my eyes.

I live on my own, I don’t live in my grandmother’s basement, I have a job, I live in a house, I moved out of my parent’s place shortly after I graduated high school, I’ve been in college and this system was still horrid.

Vocal minority? No sir, you are wrong. It started as a vocal minority but became far more. As soon as it hit mainstream media, fox news, msnbc, Forbes, times, etc., and then military personnel started making comments, Microsoft was doomed if it did not change it’s policies. Did you watch jimmy fallon this week where the ps4 and xb1 were brought on separate nights? Your general public cheered at the ps4 and it’s drm policies. Microsoft has received a clear message that the market is not ready to be strong armed into an all digital age that doesn’t have the infrastructure as of yet.

To add, Microsoft has done the worst PR for the xb1. Telling people that if you don’t have internet, there is the 360 for you? Microsoft was basically pushing consumers to the ps4. Microsoft dug their own grave with their own idiocy. All this falls squarely on Microsoft’s shoulders. They could not even get a single clear message out to gamers and the general public. It was one confusing vague statement after the other. Microsoft had the sole job of promoting and educating the public and simply dropped the ball by being terrible spokes people as to why they were doing what they were doing.
They can still pursue their vision though. From the start they should have been incentivizing people to go digital, not forcing it. We will probably see a return of family share and stuff implemented correctly in acclimating and transitioning the general consumer to the idea of an all digital future.

Your article reeks if amateur journalism fueled by emotion and generally you are great.

HisDivineOrder

I completely agree. Someone at the top of MS read the Jobs biography and thought the moral of the book was when Jobs said, “People don’t know what they want. You have to tell them what they want.” Or perhaps someone at MS is being possessed by the rage of Jobs without the aesthetic good sense of Jobs.

Thing is, MS ignored every opportunity to avoid this fiasco. When the “always-online” story broke following a leak, they could have denied it or changed course. They ignored everyone complaining because they called it a “vocal minority.” Then when one of their employees twittered something stupid and there was an even larger negative reaction, they silenced him, deleted the twitter, and then fired him. Then they very vaguely denied the accusation.

“It’s not an always online requirement.” (You just have to check in every 24 hours, which means you effectively need to always have online access available, just not always active.)

But rather than lay out their policies with a clear and concise plan of action then while people were enraged, they said, “All will become clear at our reveal, but eeehhhhh, we’re delaying that from April until May. Yeah.” So fast forward to May, they show you watching Price is Right on your Xbox, watching ESPN, talk about fantasy football, watching movies, doing anything and everything except what people actually do on their Xbox’s: games, arcade games, and Netflix. Whoops.

So there, they should have had their clear and concise plans with answers to the burning questions that the MS faithful had said could not possibly mean the end of used games as we know them and require you to check in every 24 hours. That’s just not possible!

Except vague answers and shrugs and cross-conflicting answers led to a clear-as-mud scenario.

Then they wait until a week ahead of the E3 show, less than a week actually, to pop the news out the night before the weekend before E3, hoping journalists would be mid-transit and miss the announcement. It’s clever, but they didn’t count on the fact it wouldn’t take journalists to rile gamers up when the crap you’re spewing is bad enough. And it was bad for a lot of gamers, especially military service people. That should have been anticipated by MS, but clearly they hadn’t thought anything through except that they were doing it and everyone would adjust.

Bam. E3. They show the games. Well, they showed a few games coming soon and a lot of games that were in various states of maybe next year. One in particular seemed to have no gameplay whatsoever, not even really a design for what it’d be like. Then they showed a clip of Halo that barely looked like Halo until the last 5 seconds.

Sony walks on stage, messes around for an hour, lays down the tri-force of smackdown on MS, and then walks off to the sounds of Destiny. MS is in hell. A hell of their own design. They could have at any point in the two months ahead of the E3 show clearly laid everything out like they tried to do less than a week ahead of E3. They’d have had time to lay things out, make their case, and have great answers to people’s questions. Hell, that’s what the reveal should have done.

Instead, they expected everyone to just bend over and take it because they said so. They didn’t expect or anticipate all the horror and shock and negative press they got because they weren’t listening.

This is a repeat of the Windows 8 scenario. A repeat of Windows RT. A repeat of Windows Phone. I suppose it’s karma. Why shouldn’t the Xbox One, itself built with the Windows 8 kernel, also be treated the same way and come out to the same KIND of thunderous uproar the other products did?

Someone at MS needs to wake the f up. They can’t dictate to the market what it thinks. They have to listen. Sony listened. Hell, MS still hasn’t learned. Look how they’re treating indies versus how Sony treats them. That’s why MS’s going to lose this gen. They think they are entitled to a free win.

And they are not.

guest and gamer

Very clear explanation sir, Microsoft could use men like yourself.

As an ps3 and xbox360 owner I followed all presentations to inform myself about both new systems and what you just said is exactly how I feel about the whole presentation and information from Microsoft about Xbox one.

Maybe the new patch should be an option so people have a choice to taste the future or stick with the “present” way of gaming. If Microsoft is right about the future of gaming, happy customers will pursue other gamers to use the device the way Microsoft intended them to.

Kabwall

Microsoft told the “360 was for you”, after several announcements, and at one time it has been clearly stated previously they were working towards a solution for those with intermittent internet access.

And this article no more reeks of amateur journalism than those of the last few weeks, by so called professional’s, who are now retracting their thoughts, because they did not think about it in the first place.

NGM123

They wouldn’t have caved in to a minority would they! Your the idiot.

Scott Swann

For the people that are whining saying why can’t you get up and change a Disc… The on the fly game switching that Xbox One does is not possible now. While watching TV on Xbox one I can’t just say Play Forza anymore if it is Disc based. I have to go take out whatever game is there and then load Forza. That was a great feature removed. Digital still has that functionality though.

Maminiaina R.

It would have been possible if they didn’t play this all or nothing game. what’s the problem of giving people the choice and allow the player to make his game available online? if one is always online, good for him, but not to allow a disc to play offline is plain stupid. All they needed to remove was that stupid 24h check because everybody is not in the US and some people in the rest of the world ( and even some in US ) don’t have permanent internet connection.

Tom V.

doesnt MS currently offer on the 360 marketplace digital versions of all to most of their physically printed games? so then just buy them through the marketplace instead of purchasing it physically.

Scott Swann

Tom,
That is what I will do. I just wished I had that choice with Disc based games also just in case someone buys me a Disc game or if the electronic is not availalbe at the beginning. I know Microsoft says the digital copy will be released day one, but I don’t trust publishers all the time :).

Tom V.

that’s true. i guess it’s hard to really trust any big company huh? = i wouldn’t worry though because these features aren’t gone for good. as everyone says, digital is the future and we are moving towards discless. the change just needs to be gradual and executed in such a way that still retains consumers offline freedoms/ownership. if the console was meant to support these features at launch, the infrastructure is there and these features will surely be reintroduced with firmware updates over time as we gravitate towards discless gradually and not instantaneously. they just need to better make people comfortable with and accept these policies (hopefully in a reworked fashion).

FUS3360

I forgot about that awesome feature. Too bad its now no longer a feature…

Phister

I couldn’t agree with you more. I was most surprised by my own vitriolic reaction to the news. While I do believe that MS’s messaging did not do great job on letting the trolls know what features were on the line if they were to revise their plans, I wish they would have hung on a little longer and tried harder to push that message.
on a personal note I am an older game by many peoples standard and I believe that this move will gimp consoles in many ways for a decade. This means that I will be 46 when the next generation of consoles kicks off. I will likely be in a place in my life where I will not be able to enjoy a new Xbox. This really bums me out.
thanks for ruining things and freezing us into an inefficient licensing model jerks!

The1nChicago

Unfortunately, the topic is half right. MS Screwed themselves by not showing a clear and concise message for gamers to understand the PRO of doing DRM. Nevertheless, people forget most of the bloggers are NOT JOURNALIST who are objective and possess integrity.

Furthermore, since this is a software issue MS should let those who want go the DRM and take advantage of what they are trying to do and go with it.

I hope they have a remote kill switch, because if it gets stolen you’re losing hundreds of dollars in games and not to mention the system itself. That’s why it should have kept a option to keep the 24 hour check in

ashdf

you would lose that anyway as soon as online support for the XBO stops. Just like the original Xbox, stopped online support of it back in 2010. When online support ends for XBO, you can’t play any games. So then you’re basically just renting a gaming console for 499 along with your hundreds of dollars of games. How is that an ideal solution for gamers?

robertwade

I’m in full agreement. I’m sick of technological progress being the slave of simpletons. Win8 is getting a Start button back for exactly the same reason. I’ve got a news flash for folks: console gamers are NOT the future target for Xbox. Microsoft–correctly–is going after the REST of us. I hate console gaming and I am not fond of console gamers. I am strictly a PC gamer. I have never had a desire to get a console…until the Xbox One was revealed. What draws me to it–and likely what is going to capture a whole new demographic–is all the other multimedia and home control features that his brings. And, of course, the future potential in those arenas. There’s really no place you can go with console gaming, face the facts. I can get much more advanced gaming on my PC much quicker than any console. But what the consoles CAN bring are other non-related or semi-related features. The PS4 can’t do that. It’s a one trick pony. And now the morons have convinced Microsoft to take a step or two back because of their shortsightedness.

Its obvious that the PS gamers are simple that, gamers. Inmature gamers and kids who care about nothing more than just gaming.. The xbox one is as good as a gaming machine as the PS4, but it doesn’t just play games, it more than that. THE PS is just a gaming box.,

Fritzly

The idiots here are the author of the article, surprise, surprise, and MS that decided to throw away the child with the dirty water. MS could have retained the system in place for digital games and lifted it for disc based ones. Also thinking that MS changed course because people complained is just ridiculous: they did it because Sony, contrary to what they expected, did not change its policy.
The author here would be better off sticking with Mendel instead of bragging about technology and business strategies, two subjects is clearly clueless about.

Joe

Microsoft has a time constraint, so we’ll probably see these features added back in their XBO pipeline. Look how much has changed with Xbox 360 with their updated software/hardware. So this seems more of a PR fix — considering the online community was damaging the Xbox brand which would greatly impact overall sales coming November. You don’t want your brand attached with viral hate especially when their investment in Xbox scales across their other services (music, video) and software (smart glass, XBL). Good article btw, I feel the same way.

Randy

I guess everybody that actually liked the new features were quiet, so all they heard was the complaints from the opposing viewpoint. It’s unfortunate. Now, hopefully those of us that agree with this article will be loud enough to get them to either offer each option or allow them to realize that there’s a large part of the community that realizes it’s a good idea.
I’m definitely less excited about XB1 now. I was really looking forward to the cloud availability and shared LIVE account options.

Kiraly

The biggest idiot was Microsoft ,they should explain much better how this will work and than they could avoid this.

Joe

Weren’t they pretty clear? That’s what Xbox Wire website was for. Bloggers however weren’t doing the best of job, plus the volume in noise was too big. There was too much mockery with memes getting flown around, Sony’s PR stab, threads filling up with negativity like on Amazon pre-order, etc. If Microsoft kept pressing it over-and-over the loud people would just get louder and Microsoft would come off arrogant.

Tom V.

yea because little timmy the 14yr old obsessed CoD fanboy reads xbox wire. the only exposure the mass consumer had to the console was all the negative press based around the invasive always on policy that MS failed miserably at explaining why it’s beneficial and instead said “too bad. either deal with it or buy a 360.” mattrick needs to be fired.

tredman

how would these features work without being able to check in. The only extra option would be an ability to use in offline mode

Tom V.

you just answered your own question lol. cool features = available when you’re always connected. cool features = not available should you choose not to and/or can’t for whatever reason connect to the internet, just like steam. but at least when you are offline you can still access your games.

VISU

“Microsoft was crystal clear as to exactly what was going on in blog posts on Xbox News”

Really? If MS could have explained the benefits of their strategy… they would not have such a back slash… Their representatives could not answer any questions in more detail than the 1 Liner corporate message…

The main issue was that if you are without internet for 24 hours… you console was as good as a paper-weight… I couldn’t see any benefits, only restrictions… All the benefits like more sales, cheaper games etc were just wishful thinking and a big IF

They could have gone for a middle ground and pleased the gamers and kept their vision…

Tom V.

i agree with you 100%. these policies did not have to be so extreme/drastic in order to allow for these cool features. the features will be back, when they figure out a way to get people to be comfortable with and accept the policies (aka allowing them to take advantage of said features when internet is available but while also having something that works without internet). i say let steam figure it out, as they already accomplish all of this properly and intend to introduce a game sharing system somehow, and then copy them lol.

FUS3360

I couldn’t agree with you more.. I was looking forward to all the great features that DRM had to offer. I didn’t mind paying $499 for the Xbox ONE because I knew that the features would be worth a hell of a lot more than the price. I pre-ordered the Xbox as soon as they opened reservations for the Xbox ONE day one edition. I would’ve gladly paid even more $$$$$$ for the console. Why did Microsoft listen to all these idiots. Many of them were Playstation fan boys just talking nonsense but somehow they managed to change Microsoft’s mind. I really hope a miracle happens and Microsoft does whats right. Bring back DRM. Gamers like my self who are parents and have children were really looking forward to the cloud.

Tom V.

how does the cloud benefit a parent? your children won’t scratch your discs?

FUS3360

I actually have three xbox 360’s and i was going to buy that many Xbox ones so instead of buying multiple games, now with cloud i would only need one copy and share that one copy with my kids.

Tom V.

except, not all of them would be allowed to play your shared title at the same time. only one console could access the game/be playing at a time, making it no different than having one disc and 3 consoles. the game would have just loaded from the cloud instead of from the disc drive (maybe slightly faster load times?).

FUS3360

True.. It would really save me time trying to find the game and what cosole it was last plaued on lol.. My kids would miss place them all the time. It be nice to just load the game and not have to look for the disc.

FUS3360

Now i have to buy three discs. Just to play the same game.

Tom V.

no. do you think ms would let you buy the game once and give it away for free to 10 xboxes without limitation? only one can access it at a time. if you wanted them all to have full access at all times/the same time you would still need to buy it 3 times. so, all this is is a digital version of “take the disc out and put it in another console.”

FUS3360

I know that wouldn’t be allowed. But like i said before. My discs would get misplaced and its a hassel sometimes. Sometimes i would literally look upstairs, down stairs, and in the basement with no sign of the game. It wasn’t until my boys came home from school that i would find the game. Theywere the only ones who knew where they were. Lol

Tom V.

haha those mischievous youngins!

FUS3360

That’s right! Lol

Emily the Strange

what you aren’t thinking its… now if you didn’t buy a digital version, you wont be able to fast switch games. that means you would have to buy a digital version, but since you cant share digital downloads… well you would have to deal with discs.
you are saying “10 xbox with no limitation” of course, but when you give a disc to your friend, can you play it? no!

old sharing features still allowed you to access the library anytime you wanted to and you could share it with people around the world, not just close enough to get your game fast. imagine sending a disc to a friend in the other side of the world. because you can do that with a disc, but how long would it take? it cant be like your friend playing a game at morning and you afternoon. because that would be impossible. even if your friend is close in your town, if you don’t see him/her, you wont get your game and then you cant play it even if your friend isn’t playing.
of course you were the owner of the game so in old sharing family feature, you were going to get priority over anyone. the text in xbox site said for you “always” and for other “family” members “at given time” but if your friends wanted to play with you, or the same game all day, well they could buy it or wait for you not to be playing it. that’s not your problem.
so easy sharing is not limited again, just like today. the awesome disc in tray DRM is back. and that’s not a positive thing in most scenarios.

Jared

I think fast switching games is overrated and would seldom be used.

Emily the Strange

of course… and you can tell that to FUS3360, whose kids would take his xbox one games so he cant fast switch games… oh wait, he cant even play the games now because he doesn’t find the discs.

Tom V.

these features will be slowly reimplemented PROPERLY and gradually over time as they should have done to begin with instead of just making such a drastic change right from the start. i don’t know about you, but i DO NOT want to give up my ownership of a $60 title so i can tie it to the cloud and share it with 10 people. big whoop. i buy games for myself, not others. why would anyone want to spend $60 and then only be able to play on or offline content when the internet is on and Live servers are up? that’s a terrible policy and none of the “innovations” would have changed the way most people play games.

they poorly explained the benefits of their always-on, once a day check-in, massive cloud system and instead sounded snooty about it (don mattrick – idiot) and basically said “too bad, accept it.” hence, the backlash. certain techie “circle jerks” were the ONLY people who were aware of the benefits. prices of games still started at $60, unlike most titles on steam, so no benefit for always-on/digital marketplace there until they are able to price their games accordingly. steam is cheaper and lets you play offline (should the game have offline content and be installed locally). It will also be introducing a game sharing system too that most likely won’t alter the current end-user experience (offline freedom). find a better way to make the console usable without internet (should that ever happen) while coming up with better policies to allow the for-now stripped features.

the advantages of the cloud in regards to conserving processor cycles and dumping some of the load off the local machine and to the cloud to improve the potential and performance of the console/overall experience is still possible by just LOGGING IN! if you don’t or can’t log in, well now you can still play your games! what a concept. making something completely dependent on paid/subscription internet services and forcing the internet on people for just basic functionality is illogical and invasive.

the potential of the xbox one will be reached over time, gradually as they rethink the tech and policies allowing for these features and as they give consumers more incentive (and the option) to gravitate towards the always-on model. those who choose not to (or those who do accept it but whose internet happened to go down) shouldn’t be prevented from experiencing THEIR games. if i can’t own it then i don’t care what innovations are made. these innovations don’t make gaming any more fun than it’s been since I was a kid and played my first NES game.

poken1151

I agree for the most part with this, my main issue was the absolute need for the 24hour check. I will also say, a huge part of the problem was MS’s failure to be clear in their direction, the mis-represented and mis-sold what they wanted to offer.

There wasn’t a single clear and concise comeback for all issues for the longest while and it made for the perfect breathing ground for these vocals.

What’s bummish also (pointing to your title) is that the nice Gizmodo roundup article comes after the news. All these pro’s and breakdowns weren’t so clear and uniform beforehand and very few articles attempted to clarify. Instead, they weighed in against the PS4 and for the most part stayed away from painting the news in a good light. Sans a lot of windows sites however like WPCentral, which did have a good (still koolaid looking) article, but, how many would read that without thinking they flow a specific way anyway?

wp77

Kills me how anything MS does is maligned and everything Apple does i praised. So sad.

Nahaz67

I was quite happy for the policies that MS wanted to implement. I just wanted assurance that I would still be able to buy a physical disk in 3-5 years time so I could take the initial download strain off my internet. I’m quite happy to get updates online like I do now for my PC. Also quite happy for the cloud library once it verifies the games I have bought etc. I just didn’t want to be left with an online buy option only, at least not yet.

Megaforce1020

Amazing! So what your saying is roughly the 3+ million users who are on steam hate steam because when they can’t go online they can’t play their game. Its the exact same thing that Microsoft is doing except that Microsoft will check your games once every 24 hours and all you have to do is say Xbox on and you can start playing a game. This whole stupid thing started when the tech community started playing Sim City on networks that were obvious ill equipped to handle the load and thus we see a blow up when Microsoft announces this online check.

tredman

Sim city is a single player game – always online for single player is a hard sell

Jared

Steam has low satisfaction ratings, and given the size of the pc market, adoption is very low. MS is trying to gain far more than 3 million users………….

Zkuggi

I cannot agree with this article. I´m a heavy MS user running multiple Windows 8 machines, Surface RT and Windows Phone for the last 3 years and was really excited about the potentials of Xbox One.

Still, there is no way that I can accept that I need to access the internet every 24 hours to play single player games. It is a “crippled-by-design” feature that renders the machine unusable for me… even though my household is well connected.

Now that they have canceled this ridiculous requirement I will surely get one box. I´m really happy with this decision.

koenshaku

I agree, this article is very subjective and it was no way I was buying an xbox one under those restrictions.

IntensityTX

My thoughts exactly. The video game market will go digital in the same way music and movies have. I looked at the new Xbox model to be like that of Steam, and Steam is obviously doing something right. I knew why I was paying the price for XBone the minute I ordered it, now I’m not so sure. Yes, MS could have done a better job explaining how the service would work. As an example. could two family members be on two separate consoles at the same time? That is critical to my household with our current family plan. And how is the TV functionality going to work? Who are their launch partners? In time, hopefully, all of that will be explained. Regardless, the reversal of this DRM policy could possibly result in the cancellation of my pre-order. This is not a Win / Win and it’s not a Win for all consumers. This is a loss for the Xbox fan base and power users who fully leverage the Windows Ecosystem. I wish they had done an all digital option with full functionality and a dvd based option with limited functionality. A user can choose when they initially set up their console.

scotthumble

The irony is striking that Sony has positioned themselves as consumer champions despite their sorted past. Regardless, I remain hopeful for the Xbox One’s future. The innovations have less to do with the hardware and more to do with the interconnected experience. While DRM for gaming may have suffered a set back, that isn’t why I preordered mine. Sony had to beef up the specs of their hardware as a differentiator because they don’t have the expertise or the infrastructure to build public cloud extensibility into their products. When developers realize what the possibilities are for the Xbox One platform, they will start to knock on Sony’s door asking them why they don’t do the same thing. Before long, PC Game developers will start to ask Microsoft for an API so that they can enable the same features. The DRM capabilities were a perk but they were not the point. For gamers, they will not realize the value for Xbox One until the rubber meets the road. When they do, they won’t be able to part with their hard earned nickels and dimes fast enough. Three kernels, Kinect, seamless input switching, refined gesture support, and cloud extensibility? Oh yeah, sign me up. I’m not even a gamer and I’m excited about it. When Microsoft picks up a larger market share because they broadened the appeal of their product, the tech blogosphere will echo in silence just like the Apple fan boys did when they announced iOS 7 Bing integration.

tredman

The drm is needed to create a uniform product in which every who has the device is able to use the new online capabilities. With the reversals this is no longer the case. Developers will now have to decide if it is worth money and time to include new functionality that not every will use thus getting a lower return if they do

scotthumble

The same would be true for users who perform an online check in once every 24 hours and then play offline. Most users will still be online. That is the nature of the beast. There will continue to be offline game experiences but the vast majority of people will want to use this online wherever that is available.

luis3007

Microsoft to whiners: We wanted to make the Xbox One awesome, but apparently you wanted a PlayStation 4 with an Xbox logo on it. Enjoy.

Ricardo Muñoz

I know! This is so stupid, MS was reaching for the future of entertainment and now everything is back to where it is now… I want my whole library on the cloud, I want to “lend” my games to my family who is not in the same house as I am; Im always on-line and im TOTALLY okay with it, I´ve paid for my gold subscription since the original Xbox, and Im TOTALLY okay with it.

I want a True next-gen console!!!

Avatar Roku

I can’t believe I’m going to have to put discs into the console every time I want to change games. So much for the fast app/game switching Microsoft demonstrated. I could buy all my games online, but then I don’t get any of the retail discounts that places like Amazon have and I have to pay full price and when I’m done with the game I can’t trade the game with any of my friends list people. Everything is worse.

Nikkawhat

This is quite possibly one of the worst articles I’ve ever read and I truly hope you don’t consider yourself a “journalist.” You should probably stick to doing bio-research or something that limits your human interactions and communication with an audience.

grimo

no body wants to be forced in anything check the start button the whole fiasco was about the people forced into something new they didn’t know when it should have been gradually u have to option the old start or the new start and same thing thing should have applied to XbOne and the only thing bugged me was region lock and internet access every 24 because i don’t have it always

TheHellAreYouSaying

Seriously.. Here’s a hit for this stupid article which funny enough criticizes the voice of the public being an idiotic one. THE SHARING POLICY OF XBOX ONE DOESN’T WORK THAT WAY. RESEARCH FIRST.

Sean D.

For me, as a Windows Phone user especially, this pretty much sums it all up.

“Microsoft will never win the PR war ever.”

Despite putting out great products that seems to be the case. And the worst part about it is most of the people (and by most I truly believe it’s in the upwards of 85% range) who “hate” MS do it because they think it’s the “cool” thing to do. They either see MS as a big bully, or they feel like they have to do it to legitimize their preference/purchase of a rivals products.

Friggin’ ridiculous.

bigslackwater

Please tell me that I will still be able to participate in the original MS vision for the Xbox One. The used game issue would have had absolutely no impact on the way I use my (now 2) Xbox’s in my home. Both are online all the time and they are the only source of televised entertainment in our house . . . if I cant stream it, the family doesn’t see it. Now I feel like a huge step backward has been taken, but cant figure out how I’ve been effected . . . I am still planning to get one anyway because the family is so comfortable with Xbox Live at this point.

John Smith

Suril – Shame on you for calling a minority an idiot. You don’t have to agree but if anyone should understand the challenges that face a branded minority…where is your data that the vocal are the “minority” population anyways?

tredman

I doubt more then 38 million people were being the vocal ones. thus minority

John Smith

Really? 38 million people were having this conversation? Don’t throw out numbers without understanding how sample data is used to report findings.

tredman

MS has sold about 76 million xbox 360’s. So if there was less than 50% complaining about xb1 drm shit then it is minority. Obviously this is not very scientific but you can not prove or disprove that it is a minority. It swing heavily in the minority’s side though

Particularly focus on the fourth paragraph where he describes how the “family sharing” is nothing more than a glorified timed demo of the full game (something I know for a fact is offered to PS+ subscribers on PS3).

There is your “innovation.” All the people complaining about having to buy more copies of the game now – well, you still would have with the original system.

eharris560

Peach on.

Jeff Hung

Why don’t they just provide two options for gamers?
Option one: keep connected every 24 hours and be eligible to buy the games with great discount;
Option two: keep the offline gaming capability but have to buy the games in their original prices.
Then let the market decide whether it’s mammals or dinosaurs could survive.

Forc6

Hmmm why not do it this way => Live-Activation lets you save your Game in the cloud and share it with your Family/Friends, downside of this selling or trading the game is not possible. If you dont Live-Activate your Game you have the Full control of reselling your Game, but sharing the Game with your Friends is not possible and CD Needs to be in tray to be able to Play the Game! Simple as that.

clay113

MS def needs to deliver a clearer message. This article has some points. There is a lot of anti MS vitriol coming from the tech world for whatever reason. They allow the tech world and bloggers to get out a negative or wrong message before they can show the benefits of their product. I think MS needed to drop the 24 hour check in and allow games to be played offline for those who don’t have the best connection or none. However a lot of what they were trying to do with I felt was good for developers and added flexibility for playing your digital games anywhere. I don’t agree with this article about Tom Warren however. I’ve followed him since he ran Winrumors.com and he’s generally one of the most fair to report on Microsoft. Especially compared to anyone else on The Verge’s staff.

Jared

I was in the vocal MAJORITY of smart people who was leaning towards the PS4 and not considering the XBONE at all with the announcement of the 24 hour check in requirement. What’s so hard to understand that people like me go on vacation to places where I am stuck with NO INTERNET, yet still have hours to kill playing games. Also, now if I have people over who crash for a day or so and want to watch my main TV, but sibling wants to play xbox, now they can move the TV to a different TV with no access to the internet and play on. THANK YOU TO ALL WHO COMPLAINED, NOW I CAN BUY AN XBOX ONE!

Doug Dale

Why do you go on vacation to do the same things you do at home? Why not just stay home and save money.

Jared

Not all vacations are wanted or to exotic places. Vacation to grandma’s house? No internet there… heck, she has no computer at all.

Doug Dale

How about do what you are there for? Visit your grandmother and family?

Jared

zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Avatar Roku

Seriously maybe it’s time to spring for some Internet for grandma, rather than ask a multi-billion corp to reengineer their console and tell thousands of game designers to make completely different games just because grandma is living in the mid-20th century. Or maybe you know just get a mobile hotspot or something like a MiFi for when you travel.

Jared

Why would I have my grandma who has no computer pay 50/month or 600/year just so I can use my 500 dollar machine to play my 60 dollar games? You’re being ridiculous. I own the disc, I should be able to play what’s on it.

mike

Then tether you phone to you XBOX, it is that simple.

Jared

Not everyone has a smartphone. I have a windows phone but my carrier doesn’t allow internet sharing. So no, it’s not that simple.

Jared

Not everyone has a smartphone. I have a windows phone but my carrier doesn’t allow internet sharing. So no, it’s not that simple.

Avatar Roku

And then you will put Destiny/Titanfall/TheDivision/TheCrew/NFS/ElderScrolls into your Xbox and realize you can’t play any modern AAA games without an internet connection.

Jared

All of the games you mentioned are for lame geeks. Give me NHL and Fifa. Internet not needed.

Avatar Roku

EA is one of the biggest backers behind what MS was doing. Don’t be so sure Internet won’t be needed. Many people thought you didn’t need internet to play SimCity either. Internet requirement is the best way to make sure people aren’t pirating or reselling your games.

Jared

Well if I cannot play Fifa offline, I don’t think I’ll buy the XBone

Kelv

And then you lost your discs folders…

gdog622

this next gen is all about online gaming if you don’t have internet buy a 360 simple as that

Jared

I’m sorry, how many TVs do you have in your house? How many are near an internet connection, even with wifi?

gdog622

I have 6 TVs and everyone of those could pick up an internet connection

Jared

Why would I buy something obsolete? Tell a potential customer not to buy a product? Stupid.

zakaweb

I just cancelled my boxed games pre-orders. I’m just going to get everything as a digital download. I’m hoping that MS offers the advanced features in the future for digital purchases.

Avatar Roku

Same here. Cancelled all of my preorders. But what do I get in exchange? I lose the ability to ever share, trade or sell my games now. And I’m supposed to be cheering like the horde of morons on Twitter/Reddit? They can’t even comprehend how much of their rights they just lost because their vision of the future consists of getting games used at a brick and mortar pawn shop. Too bad they’ll soon find out that they’ll be greeted with half the game on DLC, major games that are only available for download (Killer Instinct), and that they’ll never be able to share/trade/resell this content as was originally proposed. In the end the disc drive will finally be removed and the only thing we’ll be left with are our now non-existent digital media rights. Yay!

zakaweb

We all know the future is not physical media, it’s digital. This has slowed things down a bit for the consoles but I believe we will see more of a transition this generation and hopefully these features reinstated.

Doug Dale

Wow I agree completely with everything here! My brother in law and I and a couple friends have consistently been talking about how innovative and forward moving all of this was, and as soon as we saw this announcement I was like “Ok this is not smart at all, and suddenly puts the industry and the Xbox One back years”. They need to just stick it out and wait. I bet the Xbox One would of still out sold the PS4 but no they couldn’t just hold their ground and now we’re back to this

Doug Dale

The other funny thing is that people think Sony is better about DRM? Sony is the reason that all the strict DRM and RIAA shit even exists! Sony has continually made new media formats that die over time and cost an arm and a leg. Look at every PS4 video they put out, they are showing Downloadable games! They are pushing this shit just as much as Microsoft was! They just weren’t being open about it. Sony is about as evil as it gets when it comes to DRM.

Emily the Strange

well… most people complaining weren’t going to get Xbox one in first place, if it wasn’t because of DRM it was because “Kinect and spying” and if not “ps4 is “more powerful” and “Xbox one not good exclusives” etc etc excuses.
some people still were saying yesterday how Microsoft now ALLOWS to play used games and resell games. really? but Microsoft never took that away!

some people think Microsoft didn’t give good a message, but Microsoft said in E3 how you could share with 10 people games, so it was logical the benefit on 24 hour check since you could share it with people around the world.
now even a simple things like instant gaming is gone for games you bought in a disc. and a lot of cool stuff is ruined by.

1. people who never really were going to get xbox one.
2. people who see anything “Microsoft” and then find a reason to complain about.
3. people who believed stupid old rumors and didn’t read the good things about xbox one like family sharing.

some people can say its MS fault not giving a good message. but come on, what they wanted from MS? drawings explaining it? a 8000 words blog post? sometimes I really wonder if all that people were simply dumb if they couldn’t get the idea on Microsoft vision.
but hey, I guess sony gave a good message and explained everything perfectly about ps4 like when they said “there wouldnt be DRM” but they didn’t say 3rd party publishers can put any DRM they want to. because all they meant was 1st party games.

there is still people saying Kinect will spy you… and they don’t want it (even though Microsoft has shown and explained its really tied to Xbox One OSs. and that’s how apparently human brain stupidity works these days. so you cant expect that kind of people to understand benefits on old xbox one DRM.

Jared

Hi. I was looking forward to the xbone and not considering the PS4. Then after the always online/24 hour requirement, it took me completely out of the market for the xbone. With that restriction removed, I am once again looking forward to purchasing one.

tehdpr

Did MS give any details about how the 10-person sharing would work at E3? I’ve been following this story for weeks and I still can’t say for sure how their old policy would have worked. There were too many unanswered questions, and questions that had multiple vague and even contradictory answers. They weren’t on their game when they presented this system, and that is definitely their fault.

You and the author of the article should realize it wasn’t /just/ people who were against the loss of physical media that were complaining about this stuff online. I was looking forward to getting an Xbox One until I heard about the mandatory Kinect and 24-hour checkins. I tend to take my 360 offline when it’s having trouble connecting to the Live services. Sometimes for days. Having MS reply to people complaining about that with “buy a 360″ was insulting, and people should have been outraged. They could have at least said, “sorry, but this is why we’re making that required.” They didn’t. Their behavior the last month has been bizarre, and at times shameful. I get that you’re upset. You should be. But don’t defend Microsoft like they didn’t do anything wrong, because it’s just not true.

slmraiders

It looks like the plan for Microsoft was to rollout all the details of the system on a schedule but that didn’t happen because so many gamers are impatient and rude. Now because of that impatience, the people that were looking forward to the added features get screwed. I truly hope they adjust the model so that gamers that wanted those features can still get them. For all you that cried and whined about always on features and want Xbox 360.5, you can be moved down to a cheaper Silver account, but all of us that really wanted Microsoft to actually advance console technology can stay on the Gold account and enjoy them.

tehdpr

Looks like? According to what? Besides, it’s not really good PR to watch the bad press get worse and worse and not to clarify your positions or provide more information. Are people not supposed to ask questions and expect, at some point, a response? I don’t see how it was anyone’s impatience that caused all of that… it was Microsoft’s shiftiness. And console technology that can’t give you the option of adding a game to your public library, and requiring 24-hour check-ins in that can, OR keeping it private and requiring the disc and no check-ins doesn’t seem that advanced to me.

Jared

I think most people would agree that the only compromise should have been MS allowing people to play offline for as long as people want if they had the disc, and the verification could happen whenever the xbox would reconnect to the internet.

Avatar Roku

The problem was that the same disc could be used to enable 1 person to play offline while giving another person the ability to play online with a single copy.

Jared

But in the older model that was ditched, the owner and a friend could play online with a single copy too under the family plan. If anything, it’s EASIER for two people to play the old way.

tehdpr

This exactly, except that MS was never really clear about how many people could play one game at the same time.

Matt

I don’t see what the big deal about the DRM policy was to most people… the vast majority play online and the proposed policy allowed only one copy to be purchased to be played with your “family” which was up to 10 friends … the only ones who should have any objection to this would be the developers because they would sell considerably less copies, but people would rather whine before they understand the details and ruin it for everyone.

Jared

The vast majority is NOT 100%, MS is be looking for adoption. Xbox live has
46 million members and Xbox 360 total sales are 77+ million. 31 million without a subscription…. you think a good chunk of those people don’t have their device hooked up at all?

Matt

do you think any of those people are the ones on the internet whining about it? and couldn’t you just bring your hard drive to the retailer and get it there? there is ways around these things that don’t cost the consumer money

Jared

Yes, because I am in that 31 million. Why would I bring my hard drive to the store for the 24 hour check in?

h3man

You call them a minority of idiots I call you a simple minded person.

In my live and others there are dozens of scenarios where we are just not able to login every 24h. I asked XBO support if it would be able to log on to networks that require a html login. They dont know. So I wouldn’t be able to use my XBO in my dormroom. Yeah you can now tell me to focus on my studies. I use to spend my summer holidays at my grandmas place. She has no internet at all and I’m not willing to pay Verizon for internet sharing on my phone. Yeah you can now tell me not to be so cheap or spend more time with my grandma. I do my internships in europe. Shall I pay for roaming because with the region lock it would have been impossible for me to buy discs.

Not the people who complained about MS´s implementation of DRM are idiots but MS for killing everything. Add an unlock code to every disc you sell and implement a system where I have to delete the game from my console prior to selling it. Is that to hard for MS? Or for you to understand that there are better ways?

gdog622

if you don’t have internet don’t get next gen simple as that all the games online even single player games will take advantage of being online

h3man

Did you read my post? Or are you just telling me to get a PS4?
It is not about having internet or not it is about how MS implemented the DRM system!
btw I loved all the new functions they presented and preordered a XBO even though there would have been those situations where the XBO would have been nothing more than a paperweight for me.

Ethan Case

To posters below me and to Microsoft:

Why can’t any of you guys do anything right. Posters below: DRM was bad news. Are we buying games or are we renting a license? The fact that MS execs basically said “get internet or get out” is proof enough. This wasn’t about simply needing a license. Having a game linked to an account is kind of nice. This was about the week I and millions of others spent without internet during Hurricane Sandy, with our xbox 360s saving our sanity. Always on DRM for a multiplayer game, like Call of Duty. Fine. But the fact I’d need an active internet connection to play a game like Fallout, Bioshock, or Skyrim is completely absurd.

Microsoft: You don’t need to dismantle your entire vision and operation to accommodate game sales. Steam sells games online, but people can still buy PC games at a store. Steam also lets you buy games online, but then play them offline. Why couldn’t this be done for XB1? Nothing was stopping you, (not even the nerds on the internet) from keeping your overarching vision intact. You instead chose to not just back off a little on the always on features (really the only thing that bothered us) and instead decided to destroy every innovation you created… even though no one, not even Reddit was asking you to do so. All we wanted was to be able to play our games in offline mode. There were a thousand ways that could have been achieved without revoking everything. You were lazy when you created a system without any input from gamers, and you are lazy in your backtracking, retreating to your old xb360 model instead of spending a few days crafting a policy that can actually accomplish both and make everyone happy. You aren’t in this mess because fans are wishy washy, you are in this mess because you haven’t bothered talking to your fans. I have no sympathy for you.

Jared

Easily the most well written thing on the page, with respect to the comment section and article too!

koenshaku

Touche

hysonmb

This is the same line of thinking I had- THANK YOU for a well said response to a not so well said article!

textomatic

The difference between Steam and Xbox One is that Steam is all digital. You cannot share games bought from Steam, hence they don’t require that you have a check in every 24 hours. Xbox One was going to support physical discs and because Xbox One automatically installs the game to the hard drive and because the Xbox One was going to support not having to have the game disc in the tray there needed to be some way to check that we, the gamers, where not gaming the system. Basically there had to be way to make sure you where not lending out your disc and having 20 friends install it and play it offline. If there was no disc drive in Xbox One and all game purchases where digital then it could work like Steam and not require a 24 hour check in. That said Microsoft should have kept the original plan for digital purchases or have some kind of opt-in digital sharing mode for people that where willing to go with the new plan. I know my friends and I where all stoked about the family game sharing. Now it’s all gone because of the idiots on the internet. Personally I’m done with game discs. I’m doing all my Xbox One digitally.

Kabwall

Good post, but you miss the point of the article. It was the means and way at which Microsoft eventually had make the decision to revert due to media, journalist, and commenter bias.

Microsoft has clearly stated they were working on a solution for those who could have been, and are impacted by the lack of internet access.

Further, the entire solution was integrated to enable the expansion of the steam model and the family sharing. Unfortunately there are not a thousand ways to achieve this, there exists currently one, internet based authentication. This allows for near-real time controlling of the licensing, specifically in regards to who can play from your shared family and when. You cannot separate the two when the perceived problem lies with disc, you have to incorporate disc as part of the solution. Microsoft effectively paved the way for cheaper first initial purchase of games, removed largely in part the need to continually trade games, currently always at a loss to consumers, and provide a far more flexible solution.

The solution you ask for, is far more entirely complex than simply give us what we want. At no stage was there any patient to see if a solution could be found, there was only negative feedback, months before release.

You ask for input, but in supplying the most comprehensive solution Microsoft provided this too you, and all gamers. Comments made by Microsoft, largely ignored by the media, were not being forwarded to you, and certainly at the very least not comprehensively enough.

At some stage and directly related to the negative feedback, Microsoft has to react, and their reaction is understandable, as the feedback opportunity you had, was through the blogs, the media, to ask questions, to provide feedback, to encourage innovation, very little of which I saw, except for the few who stood up, and argued the case.

There is no need to feel sympathy with Microsoft, it is the gamers and the gamer community that has lost in this, that is where my sympathy remains.

And the articles author is entirely correct, journalists who had the opportunity to report accurately, are now only thinking of benefits lost, and the repercussions of that decision.

The only solution now is for as textomatic writes an opt in, completely disabling the ability for those who choose to opt-in to use optical media to install , will retaining the functionality of the disc distribution method for those who choose to remain the status quo, largely loosing out on the benefits of digital distribution. Certainly it would mean the lose of the cloud functionality opting for the disc mechanism, perhaps because of this, we will not see it back for sometime, no matter what we choose.

RedScare

Well said Sir. Not much I can add to your points, which were spot on.

yves707

100% agree. you picked the right words to describe the situation…. very sad, i can’t believe ms gave in. why dont they just try to explain the advantages first?! almost everyone would understand why drm is necessary…

Dal Dudas

You sir are the first ‘journalist’ to get what MS was trying to do I am still getting a X1

Dal Dudas

I say we should boycot all gaming sites….as a gamer community…Sony and MS fans alike…and show those cretines they can’t just make up facts and not bother doing research….the thing with X1 is the latest in the line of made up facts and overexagurations….I am done with gaming sites….

wcanyon

“Untruths”? If it was untrue it should have been easy to find a statement from MS that refuted it. The fact is that MS _may_ have had some innovative ideas in their marketplace/DRM scheme but there was no proof that it wouldn’t be something that massively favored the publisher over the consumer.

People like Steam because it is DRM with a huge benefit to the consumer.

Ethan Case

people like steam because they can still play skyrim when the internet is down.

that is literally the only change microsoft needed to actually make. They would have been fine if not for the “always on” problem. when the internet component is removed from the equation, the kinect spying problem goes away, the no internet due to sandy/time warner/etc problem goes away. by making games still available on disk as an option (as is the case with most steam games), the military submarine problem goes away too.

such a simple fix and instead MSFT decided to self-destruct.

http://www.zombiesatemyxbox.com/ Alex Ross-Shaw

The simple fact is Microsoft wouldn’t have done this unless they saw how badly their pre-orders were. They wouldn’t have done this as a kneejerk action, they must have been taking an absolute walloping from Sony and decided they had to do something drastic to sort it out.

If it’s all changed with a patch, they can look at rolling it out in a year or two, either piecemeal or as a whole, either opt-in or forced.

But they won’t want to end up like the PS3 and start badly and struggle to fully recover.

mrdeezus

Basically, ms is awful at everything and can do nothing right no matter what. Sad really because it is very far from the truth. I still think they should release a console only version for $349.00, and really eff sony.

Jason Kohlhoff

Hell yes, Suril! This article is awesome, and you sir deserve an award! Thanks also for calling out the “journalists” for flip-flopping. Please add Paul Thurrot to the list.

laserfloyd

They’ll bring it back slowly over time I think. The infrastructure and the technology is there. I agree though that I was really liking some of the potential new features. Some of the policies needed tweaking but overall were fine by me.

Ethan Case

i think, and hope, they will… but as an opt in feature.

I don’t mind drm and always on for games that actually require me to be online. like call of duty.

i tolerated it with WoW, i tolerate it now with counter-strike. some games require internet, and we all get it.

but when I tried playing Diablo 3, and Time Warner was down in my area (something that happens far too often), and I couldn’t because you need to log on to Battlenet to play a single player game, I was livid.

laserfloyd

That’s my thinking as well. An opt in would be nice. DRM is ok in some cases but not so great in others. Just like Diablo 3 I found myself wondering why I had to be online to play solo. I hope there’s a nice middle ground somewhere.

hysonmb

After reading this article I’m really inclined to stop reading this site. So many people are so into their lives and their situations that they aren’t considering the many who do not have the ability to connect a game system to the net every 24 hours just so they can play games they bought in a store.

Calling them idiots en masse because you can’t comprehend their reality is narrow minded at best and makes you a bigger idiot than any of those who were not happy with the MS decision.

I personally had no problem with it and preordered my Xbox One as soon as they opened preorders up. However, I’m also a former Marine and have been in places where there was no chance of ever getting an Internet connection with my video game systems. On a ship in the middle of nowhere, you can’t just fire up a mobile phone to check in. In a forward operating base with only sat phones as your connection to the world – you can’t check in. I could go on but you get the point. Then you have those people like @ethancase:disqus up there who lives in a place that got pummeled by a storm. Is it their fault they can’t get online? Should they be left wishing they’d bought a PS4 in times like that?
Seriously, it’s disheartening to see how narrow minded people are, thinking their little circle represents the world. Microsoft made a very good strategic move because a LOT of people were going to abandon them for this console cycle. Some of that damage is already done as the major news outlets have been really slow to get word out about the reversal of the policy though they jumped all over the announcement but, MS just may have saved themselves from becoming a punchline for the next generation.

QUINTIX256

Well, others have already mentioned the military.

I will say that Jim Sterling is definitely no idiot, and in his latest “jimquisition” vid, with only a mocking tone, shot argumentum ad vocal minoritum full of holes.

How incredibly immature of you; at least Jim Sterling can play the part of a pompous zealot with class (and self-deprecating humor at times). Leave vulgar accusations of naivety and even more vulgar accusations of collaboration for actual 14 year olds. No professional journalist or editor would be caught dead letting the words “circle jerk” go to (virtual) print.

SpooN

This is a real Shame, I was backing Microsoft on all their decisions because I believed in the end, despite all the MS hate it would still be the superior console.
When Rumors of Valve Steambox went out everyone raved over the idea of a console with no discs and great deals, when microsoft announced the exact same thing they got bombarded with hate.
I am not a fanboy to either console, I will always buy the one I think is better for me (if not both) in this case X1 was for me, I love every feature they announced. Although I will admit I wasn’t a big fan of a 24hour check in it never bothered me because I have reliable internet. (like 99% of people complaining about required internet)

Anyways thanks for the honest article even if it is disappointing news.

Cesar_Mattos

They should keep the online purchases with all DRM and Sharing and offer the same games in the online store…

If you buy online you have right to share online… if you buy disk you only can share using disks…

In the end we well see who will win… cheap games and with online sharing capabilities or old school disk trading.

anigmha

I really like this idea. But in practice, seeing through my software engineering eyes, I see a significantly less secure framework. It is like having two different vaults where each vault contains hints on the password to the other vault. You’ve bought access to one vault but because of the hint, you can access both vaults with a little thought. Safer to just have you buy access to both vaults entirely rendering the hints inside useless. I dunno if I make any sense. I’m just trying my best to use an analogy without getting into crypto-security theory.

Albert

All they needed to do was drop region restrictions and make check in 24 hour optional.
My only complaint against the XBOX One was the region lockout all the other new features were fantastic it’s a pity they dropped them but always possible we might see them in the future.

Well turns out family share had a time limit of 60 minutes for anybody other then the actual owner to play the game lol.

Philip Weigel

Oh wah wah wah!
Give up! The market spoke and said “NO!” to the DRM. Don’t like, as your masters have said…

“Deal with it.”

Neko

im a 360 n ps3 gamer…i love both consoles why? games…simple as
that xbox games ang ps3 xclusives games….well then if u think digital
media is up for u great. IMO, i prefer having a disk n put it in i dont
see anything wrong or aarchaic in that on the contrary at least i think
i’m doing something even if its to get up to the the remote control or
put a cd in the tray. ofc its your opinion but i still remember how fun
it was to go at midnight to Gamestop w/e and see lines off ppl going to
pick up their games… but i miss even more the simplicity of SGA,
NINTENDO,
PS1, DREAMCAST… i’ve been a gamer for 10 years an nothing beats those
firsts consoles ….it didnt have a menu anything just put the game
play , take the game out, turn off the tv.

indeed the tech these days is revolutionary and impressive but to me a game console its just that….

i must be archaic cuz i still think i prefer going to the local hangout to meet ppl instead of writing on fb or twit….

im 21 n i grew up playing pokemn and no one at that time cared about all this stuff …

its
funny everything we know about gamming didnt emerge in US, at least it
all came down with ATTARI n SEGA if i recall correctly, but i must say
when the first xbox appeared the games, the graphicis, improvement where
at top notch at the time…but in the end

you’ll stick
with ur console of preference this insnt suppose to be bout’ fans or
anything….but i strongly believe a game console should be imporve to
that just like they say the cloud and other things were imporvements but
no one tell them to remove them now…ppl only complain about the
offline games and i think is reasonable in my end. but hey so says there
not going to implement that later on.

Troy Sabella

My God. NO they didn’t change because a few people hated the newer stuff. They changed because there were so many cries for an upgraded console that could still be considered a console. There is already a place for people to buy digital games, it’s called the PC. You telling me that ‘we already have a product for you-called the Xbox 360′ is bull when you are developing A CONSOLE.
Consoles should stay consoles and PCs should stay PCs. We like owning our games and sharing without fees. We like being able to play our games offline when we travel and we like to travel with our consoles. We are consumers and we are gamers. I am one of the many that can now be proud to say “I’m getting an Xbox One and I can’t wait!”
Think it was just a conspiracy generated by the few? Look at all of the Facebook pages for the One and the comments about this announcement. Look at the standing ovation Sony got when they were announcing their support for borrowing games and buying used games. You think this is ‘innovation?’ Look at how many were preparing to turn over to Sony and think it a second time.

plsburydoughboy

LOL

Simon Templar

Are there reason why MS can’t do BOTH “traditional” disc based and their original DRM digital based plans? I think most people are more upset over MS heavy handed “forcing” of these things, rather than let the gamers decide for themselves.

IF all these things are so good for the GAMER, then surely if given the option to

[a] Buy the game in a digital store, with requirement to authenticate online and inability to resell, BUT with a supposed price drop and ability to share with family
vs.
[b] Buy the disc in retail store, can play offline, can resell the game, but the original cost is more expensive (or same price as now).

; IF [a] is so great and the future and all, then gamers will naturally gravitate towards this choice, right? Right?

So i am asking with tears in my eyes, why can’t Microsoft offer BOTH options and let gamers decide? This alone would make the Xbox One -better- than the PS4 , purely because of having the choice. But nooooo, MS (and every Xbox One defender) seems to think it has to be a complete shutdown of [b] to do [a]…why????

Kuro Inu

Was wondering about that too. Now they not only removed the restrictions but also the features? Come on Microsoft… You can do better. We know you can…

Martin Smith

Its a story about a child in a supermarket who throws a tantrum on finding out they won’t be getting their customary lollipop and a parent who was trying to offer something healthier. Starring Con Solegamer as the spoilt kid, Mic Rosoft as the weak willed parent who gives in because they’re making such a scene, P.C. Gamer as the eye rolling older sibling who has been eating better for years and Sony as the opportunistic parent who scores points by saying they can have what they want.

TheQEntity

I am tempted to stop readings this site after having read this utter BS. I am quite happy that Microsoft did the RIGHT thing this time!

wsantosf

Here’s an idea: keep current status for disc-based games, but add the option of online download. To avoid the 24 hour login issue, let gamer ‘checkout’ a game that he will take offline. Done. And everyone shut up.

anna king

this some bs microsoft yall shouldnt change shit. they act like the xbox 1 came with used games. when i buy my game i dont share shit, buy my kids they own games so if u want to borrow mines thats a sign to go buy 1 yourself. i preorder mines off the top, i know u have to much money to make some bs ass game. yall haven’t let me down until yall made the change. i get both console anyway, but the xbox is where my heart for gaming is. ps if u dont have the internet, u only get a half of game anyway. plus( lol) how can u call yourself a hardcore gamer

Excellent article! It’s what I’ve been saying all along. People are afraid of change. I was so looking for that X1. How many times Ive had to buy copies of MW2 because the disks kept getting scratched over time? A lot. Having kids and a large family, I was really looking forward to the new system. Who benefited a lot from this? Gamestop. The same people that would buy a month old game for $25 or less and then sell it for $55. I started selling my games on Ebay because of that. The 24 hour connection thing I don’t think it applies to most gamers because realistically we are always connected. Afraid of the kinect? cover the damn thing! If the government, companies want to spy on you i’m probably sure they can do through cell phones which 90% of people own.

XboxOne was the future. They should have stuck to their guns. I understand that If I want quality, I have to pay for quality. The PS4 while a great system, it only really improve the hardware. Besides that what other innovation they came up with? Not a damn thing. The whole entertainment side of the X1 is extremely appealing and I for one can’t wait to try it. By not sticking to their guns, MS essentially regressed. It’s like creating this really advanced computer and then using it to play pong. Wasted potential!

not_the_doctor

Being someone that’s in a rural setting, where internet is capped at 5-25GB (starting at $50 per month), and is very unreliable for some, same deal for everyone I know (my neighbors have worse internet than I do because they are too far out to get cellular), I did not like the online every 24 hour deal. Internet can go out, and it can literally take weeks to get a repair tech to come out (needed to replace equipment or re-aim the two way satellite dish).

Microsoft could have done it BOTH ways. For the many of you that have reliable, uncapped internet, it works as they said, with their short time family share demo deal, discless install, etc. If internet is not connected, it works as they’re doing it now, with all the features that many of us can’t use anyway, disabled. Having it work both ways would not be difficult at all, and would satisfy most. Especially if they would make it longer than 24 hours, so people that take them places wouldn’t have to have internet to play for a couple days.

Makes sense to me.

Kuro Inu

Agree. Upgraded my internet this year and had no possibility to connect to the internet the entire weekend due to problems caused by the provider while activating it. With the xb1 I wouldn’t have been able to play my games even though I payed for them.

Shit like this happens and if they happen the xb1 would be a useless brick the entire time. It could have been a one in a month check or something but every 24h are way too many checks.

Aubrey Pole

This is very true..thanks for ruining it guys.

Mudholesmasher

Microsoft is our bitch!!!suck it

Mudholesmasher

They could still do family sharing even though it was bs….Their just butthurt now. Ps plus already comes with timed demos lmao Come to the darkside people. Dont be fooled again. You lost fuckers.

princeLaharl

~75% of gaming console pre-orders are not a vocal minority. Microsoft changed the X-Box One because it wasn’t selling. People didn’t want it. Simple as that. The consumer wins this time, you corporate assholes.

xzzz

“family sharing” is just 15 – 45 minutes gameplay of a game. after that, player will be redirected to store to buy the game.

webhead09

I’m sorry but so many of you are just beyond help. Why is dropping the family sharing thing a terrible thing?!! Honestly explain this to me Microsoft fanboys.

So I could play a game my brother paid for… for only 1 HOUR and then I would be sent to a website or whatever to pay for the game. It’s just a frickin demo service, just extended. Yes I know you could go back to play it supposedly but there were gonna be restrictions on how many times you could play.

I will admit the IDEA sounded cool but the way they were doing it was retarded. My brother paid the $60, why should I pay to play the full game without any restrictions? I could go to my brother right now, ask to borrow a game, and shock of all shock…. actually play the game without any restrictions whatsoever.

AND one more thing…. to all the people who say “Wel.. wel… PC gamers don’t complain about…” THIS ISN;T A PC!! THIS IS A CONSOLE!!!!You want only digital, go buy a PC, what’s stopping you?!! Steam is awesome

wormywyrm

Good article. I think what makes the xbox unique is still there, the great games, the HDMI in, the insane 5-person ultra-sensitive kinect, the kinect/voice control, and the digital library. I agree that the blogosphere and media are anti-microsoft. Microsoft puts out some really innovative devices. The push against the surface RT especially comes to mind, a device that should have been compared to an ipad, but instead the media time and time again compared it to laptops. I think some of these older tech bloggers just hate the idea of change, and they still think microsoft is the monopoly it was in the 90’s. That is long over now, MS has changed, bloggers havent.

Edgar Meza

I completely agree with you.. Especially with the Surface RT. Bloggers don’t know what they’re talking about theses days.

nuniruro

Biased news, my favorite

Agosto Nuñez

It’s sad that Microsoft listened to such a bad informed minority, they should’ve let the internet hate it, the hate is already planted, and is not going away. Both the Media and for some reason many people hate Microsoft for NO REASON AT ALL, this has not been an exception to the Xbox, people bash Microsoft without properly supporting their claims and tend to ”make up stuff” or use examples from the past on which Microsoft has gradually improved over time (as security).

I honestly hated the Xbox for a long time and Microsoft, but the Xbox One actually has a lot of potential and Windows 8 has made me a Microsoft-Fanboy, it’s a shame to see other people not giving Microsoft even the benefit of the doubt, I have friend who is an Apple-Fangirl and ONLY buys Apple products and every time she even hears the word ”Microsoft” she can’t stop claiming how you’ll get virusses but closes her ears when someone points out that Macintoshes are more vulnarable.

The Xbox One was ”build on the CLOUD” to be streamed in the Cloud, sure music and video-on-demand will continue to be 100% Cloud (Zune), but it would’ve been the gaming revolution that would do to video-games what iTunes did to the music industry, digitalize it and bring it to the Cloud without physical media.

I hope they’ll at-least make it optional, from trying ”real gamers” will learn that it would be more beneficial, loud minorities always get heard because the people who love their products don’t visit threads and comment-sections to talk about their business becuase they don’t feel the anger in themselves to do so.

Richard

There is ONE alternative they could have considered… Hybrid… When internet is not available, Require the disc… I mean maybe I am over simplifying it but the biggest problem to me was if the console was offline more than 24 hrs. If after the 24hrs you could insert the disc to play the game I would have been happy.

Leftside

Suril is a scientist, journalist and obsessive Microsoft observer.
Dear Sir, Microsoft should have introduced these changes over time. Announcing all of this at the same time was overwhelming in the midst of windows 8 and the windows phone. Consumers have had enough change that has not really worked out.
You are mad because people overreacted which is what you are doing. Console gamers will have to play the way they always have. We will be ok

Carlos Panzram

Wow with this, just wow. Idiots? Mnority? The One got crushed in preorders by ps4, because no one wants his shit.I don’t think Microsoft is evil or anything, just out of touch, and with a little “what the other hand” is doing blindness. The fact that they course corrected this gives me WAY more confidence in them as a company. By doing this they secured at least one more Xbone sale, mine.

Carlos Panzram

This* unless there is actually a man named Micro Soft, in which case I retract my correction.

ssbobbyh

When Microsoft has sales that are even CLOSE to steam or PS+ level, then you get the right to complain.

Scarlet

What is going on with all these “stupid” ppl?

Xbox 1 had a screwed up preorder number. After MS switched the DRM, their orders went up and MS started to smile again. & you idiots complain about what they did? If you guys love this crap so much thn just stick to it and you will get it in time. MS is a company, company = business. & in the business world ppl only care about sales.
The mayority wanted the DRM gone, so they got rid of it.
Now deal with the decision MS did and suck a lolly if it bothers you.
If they would have done it your way, in a short to medium run, MS would hv closed the doors and you guys hv a nice black shit box at home.

duck

I cannot believe people want the DRM back. Sure, the innovations sound interesting, but the always online thing is not acceptable. As for the trade-in situation, guess what? Trade in has been a part of gaming for decades – kids in particular want to play the latest games, and they’ll trade in games if they have to. That’s the way it’s always been, from the indie shops years back to the BS chains like GAME here in the UK.

Idiots like Cliffy B don’t seem to understand – they get their share when the game is originally sold, and now they want to milk people more from trade-in (not to mention micro transactions and DLC). Here’s a tip Cliff, stop making generic crappy shooters, release something worthwhile and people may actually keep the game they bought and buy all the add-ons that will be released for it.

You want the DRM back? Fine – I hope you get it. Just don’t start crying when the support for the system stops and you’re left with a big black paperweight.

Twat.

David

When was the last time you saw someone sell a used game on Steam? Never, true enough, but you’re missing one important detail. STEAM DOESN’T SUCK! It has sales every day! It has package deals! It has wonderful built in communities, it has Greenlight, you can access artwork, videos, mods and guides on the game that you’re playing with a simple click, it has an offline mode for people who can’t connect to the internet, and importantly, MOST IMPORTANTLY, it doesn’t have a monopoly on the entire market! It has to compete with Amazon, GOG.com and Greenman gaming, which promotes competition. All of those websites have good prices and sales to rival Steam, which promotes competition. And, lest we forget, Valve has spent years building up respect from their fanbase.

Has Microsoft done any of that? Was the Xbone going to do any of that? No. It was going to have all of the downsides of PC gaming, and none of the perks. Innovation =/= good. The online XBL is a joke, prices rarely drop because they have no direct competition, there are rarely any sales and Microsoft points are a pain. Oh, and they constantly bombard you with advertisements when you go online, despite the fact that you’re paying sixty bucks a month to go online, but apparently Microsoft STILL isn’t making enough money.

I thought that microsoft always has been ruining gaming ever since the day they made the original X-box. Their first fuck up was buying Rare ware

Joe Vicious

Agree 100%

You are flat out wrong

Microsoft fanboys can whine all they want but face facts: the market spoke and no one wanted it. The policies were reversed because they were so toxic pre-orders were horrendous. At some point Xdrones are going to have to be magnanimous and admit that the vocal majority despised the Xbone’s initial policies and removing them brought the console back from being evil to just a joke.

Bob Jones

I know I’m replying to this a long time after the face, but in response to the bullet points in the article:

*I don’t necessarily want my entire collection to be “in the cloud.” One day one MS stops supporting the Xbox One (and network support for it), that means all of my games disappear.

*With a disc required system, I can play the game anytime I like, even long after the console is no longer supported. As a player of both current and retro games, this is important to me.

*Frankly from everything I heard, the family sharing plan sounded like a load of crap anyway (more on this later).

*Awesome, sharing the disc is the easiest and simplest way to share a game.

*I don’t do a lot of PC gaming, and have little interest in it due to the lack of physical media these days. From everything being said, the family sharing plan was never going to let 3 separate people simultaneously play the same game against each other. If one person was using it, the others couldn’t, with the actual purchaser having the main control over it. It wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. And frankly given what we lose in not having physical based games, it wasn’t an upgrade.

*I don’t see why not being able to store or download a game from a cloud that was bought on a disc is a “problem.” Discs offer the ultimate freedom. Yeah, you have to get up to change it out. But you aren’t reliant on someone else’s service just to use them for any single player / local multiplayer options. And franly, we shouldn’t be.

*The digital selling of games / transferring of licenses would be way too limited. They would be able to be transferred once and then never again… rendering all games for the system to ultimately become digitial data lost over the course of time. If I want to play a game for an older system like the NES, Genesis, etc, even if I don’t already have that game, I can track down a copy of it. Good luck doing the same with a digitally purchased game 20 years from now.

*I really don’t see why publishers should make money on the games being resold. They made the initial sale, not the subsequent sale. If I sell a car, an old set of pots and pans, or pretty much any other good that I own, the company that made said item does not get a cut of it. Why should gaming be some kind of big exception to this?

*Game would not be cheaper. That is a pipe dream if ever there was one. The publishers would still charge the same amount for the upfront game, but would just also reap the benefits of the aforementioned resale. Besides, if they were to lower prices, the following would still be issues…. 1. People selling their games would get a smaller cut since the publishers are getting a cut as well. Therefore they have less money with which to buy the next game, rendering any theoretical savings on the price of a new game moot. 2. What they don’t make on the up front game, they’ll try to make up with nickle and diming dlc.

*Not if the publisher it taking a cut. Also everyone acts like selling to Gamestop (who gives very little for used games) is the only option. There are other ways to sell used physical games and get more return out of them. And if the cost of buying a “used” game is close to or the same price as new, why wouldn’t someone buy new? There isn’t much advantage there. Which is what the publisher is hoping for.

*There is no guarantee that consoles will follow the Steam model. And even if there are good sales, frankly I don’t want to give up physical ownership in favor of a few bucks in savings.

*The sharing plan would have been more restrictive than you are making it out to be.

*The problem with the 24 hour check in is this…. Some day MS will stop supporting the Xbox One. That’s just a fact. And when that happens, there will be no way to check in anymore. When you can’t check in, you can’t play any of your games. Imagine instantly (and by force, not by choice) instantly losing access to ALL of the games that you bought… potentially thousands of dollars worth depending upon how many you bought and at what price. My main concern with this 24 hour check in is not my reliance on my own internet service (though even that concerns me a bit as I’ve had problems with my ISP going down from time to time), but their servers. You don’t hear people complain that video game require electricity because you can still plug in old gaming system and have them power up just fine. But when you need to connect to a specific service that one day will no longer be offered for this system, you have a bit problem. Not everyone sells off all of their old games. Some hang onto them and play them again… and even years later add to their collection, even when that system is no longer current. The restrictions of this system were going to be servere as all hell.

Nothing was ruined in all of this. Most of this was not real progress. It was a lot of resctrictions disguised as progress. Anyone who believes otherwise is fooling themselves.